Jonah Update: A Weekend of YES, and Now We Keep Fighting

Since our last update after Jonah’s surgery in Boston, he has continued to recover incredibly well. He even made it back to school for a few days last week, which felt like such a gift.

He also had another MRI to help his medical team pinpoint the most precise locations for radiation. Jonah will begin proton radiation this Thursday, September 10, five days a week for the next six weeks. We are working to schedule his treatments in the evenings so he can continue going to school and maintain as normal a routine as possible while he feels up to it.

He has also started taking a daily medication called atovaquone, an anti-parasitic, which his medical team is using alongside radiation.

As for what comes after these six weeks, we are still working on that plan. Jonah’s tumor tissue has been sent to several places around the world, including Germany, Boston, UF and Atlanta, for extensive testing. The goal is to learn as much as possible about the specific makeup of his tumor so his doctors can identify the most promising treatments or combination of treatments for him.

It is incredible how far medicine has come. Rather than simply throwing treatments at this cancer and hoping something works, we are trying to understand exactly what we are fighting and find the best possible way to outsmart it. There are still so many unknowns, but we are grateful to have a plan for the next six weeks and an extraordinary group of doctors and medical teams working together on what comes next.  To Stefanie Lincoln and Lindsay Sikora - a million thank you's for running point on all things medical will never be enough.

I will share more when we know more.

48 Hours of YES

And now, I have to tell you about this past weekend.

As many of you saw, Jonah was surprised with a YES DAY through the nonprofit we started a few months ago. Randi joined our board because she believed in what we were building for other families. None of us could have imagined that our first YES DAY recipient would be my godbaby.

It was heartbreaking and heart-bursting all at once.

On Friday, September 4, Jonah arrived at Kingswood Church with absolutely no idea what was waiting for him. More than 200 friends and community members were there holding posters, cheering and sending him off to Gainesville for an epic weekend with his beloved Gators. Mayor Lynn Deutsch, Jonah’s principal, Falcons legends, Georgia Tech players and cheerleaders, Falcons Cheerleaders, Freddie the Falcon, Buzz, Kona Ice, Dunwoody Police and Fire, a DJ and so many people who love this family showed up.

The moment Jonah realized what was happening is something I will never forget. And then he and his buddies climbed into the most incredible Sprinter van and headed to Gainesville.

What followed was 48 hours of pure joy.

Friday night, Jonah and his friends got to meet the Florida football players as they came out of their team meeting, including some special time with QB1 Aaron Philo.

Saturday morning, we took Jonah, Dylan and Sami to the AEPhi house to show them where Randi and I met. They were obviously super impressed with our college history and mostly just mocked our composite pictures.

Then came the UF Bookstore shopping spree, where the family got custom jerseys and enough Gator gear to last a lifetime, followed by a pizza and Chick-fil-A lunch at the dining hall.

From there, the Blick family headed to the O’Dome to meet the basketball team before practice. As luck would have it, Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard were there too, so Jonah got to meet them along with the team and Coach Golden. They also had the chance to spend some time with Anita Zucker.

Then came Gator Walk. Jonah and his family were escorted in with the football team, with Jonah walking right next to Jaden Baugh for part of it. Micah was having the time of his life high-fiving everyone.

And then, The Swamp.

Jonah spent the two hours before kickoff on the field watching warmups, taking pictures on the 50-yard line and seeing everything up close. After enjoying the suite, he went down to sit with his buddies about eight rows from the field and experienced his very first Gator game in The Swamp surrounded by so much love.

The energy was unreal. The Gators crushed it. Philo was on fire. And we may have converted a few Dawgs and Canes fans into Gators along the way.

For 48 hours, Jonah got to just be 14. He got his best friends, football, family, laughter and a whole lot of YES.

The Community That Made It Happen

There are so many people to thank, and I know I will inevitably leave someone out. Please know how deeply grateful we are to every single person who donated, showed up, made a call, offered a connection, sent a gift or helped make this weekend possible.

To every person whose name I may have missed: thank you. Truly. This weekend happened because an entire community kept saying YES.

Now We Keep Fighting

We are back home and gearing up for what comes next. Jonah has an oncology appointment tomorrow morning, radiation begins Thursday, and tonight he is asking Stella to homecoming!! We are trying to keep life as normal as possible in between all of it.

Watching Jonah’s story spread through the news and social media has been overwhelming in the best way. Our hope is that this attention can become something much bigger than one weekend. We want to connect with people who are willing to help fund crucial pediatric brain cancer research and clinical trials, so we can find better treatments for Jonah and, ultimately, so no other family has to experience this.

We have learned so much in the past month about brain tumors, cancer research, clinical trials, the FDA approval process and how difficult it can be to move promising science forward. We want to use every resource and every connection we have to help change that. Every child, regardless of money or access, deserves the same chance at survival.

Phil and Cheryl Yagoda of Ian’s Friends Foundation have been two of the most incredible people we have had the privilege of meeting. From the moment they heard about Jonah, they called and offered to help in any way possible. They showed up at the Blick house last week with dinner and presents for everyone, and they have promised to continue working with us to help fund this important research. They have invited us to their symposium at the end of September, and we cannot wait to be there, share Jonah’s case and continue building connections that may help move this fight forward.

For now, we have a plan for the next six weeks. We have an incredible medical team. We have a community that has shown us what it means to show up. And we have Jonah, who continues to amaze us every single day.

We are going to keep finding the joy. And we are going to keep fighting with everything we have.

One quick housekeeping note: I will send a separate update about meals so it does not get lost here, but we are moving to meal deliveries Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays only for now. Randi would like to try making dinner a few nights a week and keeping the house as normal as possible. If you are signed up for another day, that sign-up will be removed. Thank you for understanding and for continuing to love on this family in exactly the ways they need.

Thank you for every prayer, every message, every donation, every connection and every ounce of love. We feel all of it.