The Kids of 2006

Travis

It was early in May 2005 when 14 year old Travis was thriving in his freshman year of high school. He was on honor student, part of the debate team and playing lacrosse for Hanover Park when his life took a drastic turn. The results of the biopsy done on the lump a doctor removed from his back came back and they told us it was leukemia. We picked him up from the lacrosse field and took him to the hospital where he began chemotherapy within 24 hours. Within hours his world was thrown into a surreal nightmare that would leave him changed forever.

When he began his ordeal, Travis was an athlete the lacrosse coach nicknamed “cement truck” because of his size and strength. Six months into his chemotherapy he had lost 54 pounds and couldn’t stand without shaking. The very chemotherapy that was killing off the leukemia was endangering his life. He suffered life threatening bacterial blood infections, intestinal infections, and pneumonia that put him in the ICU twice. Instead of playing and going to school he learned about morphine and CAT scans.
November 21st he will begin the process for a bone marrow transplant. And once again will fight for his life.

Travis has taught his family how to live strong and what it means to have courage. His life will never be the same.

 

Christian

Christian, an active 4 year old, had been sick since the beginning of October 2005 and was seen by his doctor at least once a week with what was thought to be just your usual childhood virus. After being sick for almost 2 months his parents told Christian’s doctor that they wanted blood work done to rule out anything else. His doctors said they don’t like to put children through blood tests or x-rays unless it is absolutely necessary. His parents insisted and as it turns out, the blood test showed that he was extremely anemic. The doctors suggested that they see a Hematologist for further testing. The same morning they received news of his blood test his family contracted a hematologist and Christian had to be seen as an emergency.

Upon his arrival at the Valerie Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, November 30th 2005, he was immediately brought in for an exam and numerous blood tests. The doctor told them that further testing needed to be done and that Christian needed to be admitted. When he was admitted he was running a fever of 104.5 degrees! The next day was when he had his first spinal tap and bone marrow test. The results were in within 24 hours and it was to their disbelief that the diagnosis was Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. As of day eight of his chemotherapy, Christian’s cancer has bee in remission.

He is currently being treated at the Valerie Center at Morristown Memorial Hospital and is doing well. At present, his treatments are expected to last about 3 more years and he is expected to fully recover. The doctors say because of his age, he should have little to no recollection of this whole ordeal.

 

Selvin

Selvin was a healthy 11 year old boy in 2001. He was in middle school at the time, played sports, and did everything a normal 11 year old boy does. It was the end of October 2001 when he had severe headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After several days in the ICU, he had surgery. The surgery went well, and the pathology result showed that the brain tumor was an Ependymoma, which is a very rare type of tumor. Since there weren’t many studies about that type of tumor, he went for second opinions to many well known doctors. On the advice of these doctors, he had radiation, which lasted for about a month. He had follow up MRI’s and was looking good. He was on the high school basketball team and was very healthy. But in the summer of 2005, on a follow up MRI, another brain tumor appeared in a different spot. Within a few days, he went in for another surgery with good results. After surgery and seeking the advice of several doctors it was decided to use cyperknife radiation. The next MRI showed improvement. By February of 2006, he went back to school and was getting back to everything he was doing before. At the end of March, he began to experience mild headaches, which the doctors first thought was because of the weather, but just to be sure, they did another MRI. The MRI test showed that there was a recurrence of the tumor in another spot. After his 3rd successful surgery, he started oral chemotherapy, and did once week of radiation too. Currently, Selvin is going thru oral chemotherapy which is expected to last for about one year. He is very thankful not to have too many side affects. He is in good condition now because God has helped him thru a very challenging time in his life and because God has generously blessed him with a strong and faithful family and, a lot of good friends to support him. Once Selvin is finished with chemotherapy he aspires to rejoin the high school basketball team and hopefully become an NBA player