The Eagles hockey team has battled hard on the ice and seeing more wins as a result. Off the ice, another battle is being fought by junior Tyler Ruppelius, who is fighting and beating Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

 

Tyler's cancer journey began shortly after Christmas this past year. 

 

“He came to us with a lump on the right side of his neck,” said Jeff and Kris Ruppelius, Tyler’s parents. “He was just getting over a cold so we were not overly concerned, but thought it was something we should have checked out.”

 

Tyler was put on antibiotics to see if the swelling would decrease. Five days later the lump was not going down in size, and the pediatrician sent Tyler for an ultrasound of this neck and then referred him to an ENT at Children's Specialty Center. The next day was his ENT appointment. The ENT ordered a CT of the neck. 

 

The CT showed multiple enlarged lymph nodes on both sides of the neck and down into the top of the chest. 

 

“The ENT told us that this could be lymphoma or a possible fungal infection,” they said.

 

A biopsy confirmed that he has Hodgkin's Lymphoma and his PET scan showed he is stage 2.

 

Tyler was able to play two more hockey games before starting treatments. One of those games was  Jan. 20, Hockey Day Minnesota and also Becker-Big Lake Eagles Day.

 

“It was a great day of hockey where we watched both our boys play two great games,” said the Ruppelius family. “We all felt the love and support of our hockey family and the whole association. It was a great day!”

 

On Jan. 22, Ty had his central line placed. He was initially scheduled to start his chemotherapy the next day. 

 

“But we received a call from Children's Oncology Clinic to let us know of an opportunity that Ty may be interested in,” they said.

 

Someone had donated tickets to the MN Wild fundraiser Wild About Children for Tuesday night.     

 

Tyler had the opportunity to meet all the MN Wild players, get pictures and autographs, and was served dinner by the players. It became an appreciated distraction from everything that had been happening.

 

Now, Tyler has been responding well to his chemotherapy treatments. His doctor thinks he may only need four rounds of chemotherapy and no radiation treatments, which is excellent. He started his third round of chemo Wednesday. 

 

“After this round, he will have another PET scan, and we are hoping he will be in remission at that point,” said Kris. “If his scan is still positive his doctor will re-evaluate his treatment.”   

 

At his appointment Wednesday, the oncologist elected to do the fourth cycle of chemo.

 

"He wants to just as a precaution to make sure it does not come back,” said Jeff.

 

“Tyler and our whole family have all received tremendous support from our high school hockey family, the BBLYHA Hockey association, friends, family, and co-workers,” said the Ruppelius family. “We would like to thank everyone for all their support!             

 

They have provided meals, rides, fundraising, emotional support and the list goes on.”

 

Tyler’s last hockey game was Hockey Day in January. For all of the following games, his teammates would hang his jersey in the rink in support of Tyler. 

 

“That meant the world to me knowing my teammates were thinking about me,” said Tyler. “Because I want nothing more than to be out on that ice with them.”

 

The team also gathered in prayer on the ice for Tyler’s treatment and started the online hashtag #Support17.

 

“He is hoping his senior year will be the year,” said Kris.

 

Tyler also has a CaringBridge website, www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylerruppelius, that is regularly updated.

 

“A simple ‘thank you’ truly does not seem like enough,” said Kris. “We would also like to thank the staff at Big Lake High School for all their support in helping Tyler stay up to date with homework and all of their extra help in keeping him on track with his school work. We truly appreciate it and are extremely grateful!”