For those readers who have been following the life of Ezra Chatterton, the 11-year-old World of Warcraft fan battling brain cancer, I just heard from his father Micah. (Catch up by reading old posts)

The good news: He hasn’t had a headache in a month, which indicates the cancer has stopped growing. It’s possibly begun to shrink.

But complications from various medications are causing problems. Ezra headed back to the hospital on Monday with stomach pain.

Says Micah: It’s one of the mean ironies of cancer that the treatments are often just as painful, if not more so, than the disease. Still, we weren’t sure that he’d even get this far, let alone be able to come off all the pain meds he was on.

Ezra became famous last spring after the Make A Wish Foundation offered to grant his wish. His desire was to design characters for his favorite game, the World of Warcraft.

Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment did more than oblige. Staff artists, designers and developers worked with the young Riverside boy to create characters (including the Old Rancher, pictured on right), a quest and weapons. Ezra even got to do a voice over. And he went home piled with Blizzard goodies, not to mention a personal invite to this summer’s BlizzCon.

But I’m sure he would trade all of that to get rid of his cancer.

His father writes:

Ezra’s attention span and thinking have become much clearer since he’s gone off morphine (which is understandable), and he’s ready to get back to some sense of normalcy. He took a bit of a break from WoW, his eyes having been damaged by the cancer.

Still, just yesterday we passed time in the hospital trying to come up with new classes and storylines for the game, which I’m supposed to email to our Blizzard friends this evening. Ezra figures that if he does have Blizzard’s ear, he might as well try to get his ideas heard. I think mostly, though, he just likes to keep the connection fresh.

Well, Ezra is currently on the mend. He’s starting to be able to keep food down, and once that’s done, he will be able to come home. Hopefully, that’ll be in another couple of days. So long as he
doesn’t go nuts in there.

I’m off to the hospital soon, so I’ll let you go. If, in your update, you can just ask people to continue their prayers, and also let them know that their good thoughts have already had an effect, I’d really appreciate it.

You heard the man, folks.

If you feel like sending Ezra a note, e-mail him at ephoenix@earthlink.net

Also, to help with medical costs, there is a fund:

The Ephoenix Fund
P.O. Box 55781
Riverside, CA 92517

You can also donate via PayPal. Use the e-mail address ephoenix@earthlink.net

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