Meet Kid Captain Eli Belser
Eli started getting sick in 2019 and local doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong. He had difficulty eating and walking and was in constant pain.
When Eli Belser’s symptoms didn’t improve after treatment for an initial diagnosis of a rare bone disease, specialists at University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital diligently searched for answers, ultimately diagnosing him with cancer.
Then 4, the Elkader boy suffered from fatigue around the time his parents, Marcus and Katie, had their fifth child.
“We took it as there's a new baby in the house,” Katie recalls. “Then we realized that he was in pain at times. And obviously, a 4-year-old should not be in pain.”
They took him to a local clinic, then a chiropractor, and to Eli’s pediatrician before being referred to UI Stead Family Children's Hospital. Eli’s condition continued to worsen as they approached their appointment.
“Things just basically kept declining,” Katie remembers, adding that she called his pediatrician. “He told us to take him straight down to the emergency room, not to wait, and so that's what we did.”
Eli’s symptoms mimicked a rare bone disease called chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis, or CRMO, but his parents saw no improvement after initial treatment.
“At a normal appointment for his CRMO treatment we told them something still didn’t seem right,” Katie says. “The rheumatology department didn’t hesitate for a minute to dig deeper. He was having a lot of abdomen pain that day, so they did just an abdominal MRI and that's when they found the mass. We would soon find out that Eli actually had stage 4 neuroblastoma, high-risk.”
Katie says the tumor, behind Eli’s kidney, had been pressing on major arteries and his spine, causing the pain.
Treatment included several rounds of chemotherapy, tumor-removal surgery, stem cell harvest, two back-to-back stem cell transplants, radiation, and immunotherapy.
“The chemo wiped out all of his blood cells,” Marcus recalls. “And that is where the stem transplant comes in, to replace those cells.”
Part of his treatment came during early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, when visitors were restricted, and Eli had difficulty even getting out of bed. Marcus loaded up the couple’s other children in their van and parked outside of Eli’s hospital window.
“I made a sign for the window,” Katie recalls, “and I remember my husband pulled up, and I (saw) the van and I was like, ‘Eli, your siblings are outside.’ Once he got to see his siblings for a little bit… I feel like it went up from there.”
“We knew that was potentially his only chance to be able to wrestle in a tournament,” Katie recalls, adding that not only did he get to wrestle, but he won first place. “He was on cloud nine, walking through the hall lifting his trophy up over his head.”
His parents are grateful for his care team.
“We always say you feel like you never want to be there, under any circumstance, but if you absolutely have to, we were so grateful that we were there,” Katie says. “They took all our concerns and they really addressed them with each other. They were just great.”
Eli still receives follow-up care at the hospital, and as of May, has been in remission for two years.
Now 7, he is a second-grader whose latest love is fishing.
“He does get tired easier, but Eli gives it his all, all the time,” Katie says. “You would never in a million years think this kid ever went through treatment or had cancer in his life. He looks great, and usually has a smile on his face.”
