Could I please catch a break next year???

     This past year has been extremely rough for my family and I to say the least! 2010 CAN KISS MY BUTT! Here's my recap for the past 8 months. Cancer,  cancer and a death, and a motorcycle accident.

March 2010

In March, the 12th to be exact, we found out my little brother, 15, had cancer. He had helped my dad move I believe 2 weeks prior maybe more and must have pulled something in his back. From there on, it started to get worse, then it came to the point where he couldn't really walk. So they made an appointment to go see a chiroprator, he said they needed to go to urgent care over at Children's Hospital and from then on it just went downhill. I told myself from the day I found out, I wanted to blog the whole experience, my emotions and how his treatments were going. But when your at the hospital everyday and then come home to take care of your family.....things get extremely hectic.
    So they diagnosed my brother with T-Cell rich B-Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, he had 3 tumors, one in his armpit, one in his lower back and the bigger of the three was towards the top of his back, inbetween the shoulder blades, surrounding his spine, but not attached to it. They figure when he was helping my dad move, something pulled and the tumor started to push against the spine, paralyzing him. My reaction......SHOCK, I couldn't believe it, how could my 15 year old brother have this and no one knew?! Unfortunetly, the first time you go into the HOT unit (Hemotology, Oncology, Transfer) you realize just how many kids are effected from this horrible disease they call cancer. You walk in there with a feeling of sadness, just thinking about the pain these little kids have to endure on a daily basis, it makes you feel greatful for being healthy, but by the time you walk out of their you feel happy for those kids. Because I have never seen bigger smiles in my life, than the ones I've seen on their little faces.

So this is the first picture we took 2 days after he was admitted.



Back to my brother, they started him on some pretty heavy chemo cycles. Honestly I can't even begin to name the different chemos that went into his body, some weeks they did an intense round and other weeks they did an less intense round. Some of the chemo could have caused mouth sores so they make you rinse with mouthwash 3 times a day, luckily for him he didn't get that. Some of the chemo could cause hair loss, which later down the road that happened. My brother started to loss skin on his feet, so they had them all bandaged up and he had a hard time walking that lasted only 2 weeks I believe. For the first month I would say my brother never left the hospital, I think it was towards April where he got to go home for a week and then come back for 3 weeks to get chemo. Donovan and myself were there everyday, well Dono not everyday but as much as possible because it put a smile on my brother's face.

Dono and his Uncle Austin @ the hospital....oh and Figment too!

The great thing about Children's Hospital is that they offer so many different programs for the kids, they will bring in tutors for their schooling. There's always neat projects, one day we made a voodoo type doll, that's the best way I can describe it. They also do this bead program where you get beads for every procedure, chemo, blood draw, ct scan, mri.....it's called beads of courage. This is my brother's beads, from the beginning, as I move through the months I'll post more pics of his beads.







Making his "beads of courage"



Soon after they decided it was a good idea to cut by brothers locks short, instead of it just falling out itself, because it's supposed to be more painful. My brother didn't like the idea but one way or another his hair was eventually going to fall out. Here are his before and after shots, with hair and with it short.

Austin really never, that I saw, got sick from the chemo, there were days when he would just sleep or sometimes wouldn't eat. But I never saw him on his hands and knees in the bathroom barfing from the chemo, he was lucky, although he was taking anti nausea meds, I think that helped. I would bring Dono there and they would either throw Donovan's socks around the room, which on two occassions, his socks went into the red container where they put the biohazard stuff.....we never got those socks back :) Or they would watch cartoons and snuggle or they would do this.

My brother also got the opportunity to meet some of the players from the Milwaukee Bucks, they do a lot of work with Children's Hospital and coming to see the kids in the HOT unit. They gave him a Bucks hat too!

Another shot of his beads before heading into April..............on his "tree", that's what they call the IV stand that holds all of their medicine.