|
|
|
|
When I was 1 ½ my mom noticed that my eye seemed to be puffy. She took me to a doctor and he said it was nothing to be worried about. He gave her some medicine to put on my eye, but it kept getting bigger and bigger. So my mom took me to a different doctor and he said the same thing. So my mom took me to one more doctor and he said that there was definitely something wrong. So he sent us to Dr. Slano, who saw me right away. I was then sent to a specialist. He saw a tumor behind my eye and said it was cancerous. I was operated on a few days later. The doctors told my mom that I had cancer…Histiocytosis X. The doctors at Children’s Hospital told my family to prepare to say goodbye to me, because they thought I was going to die. No doctor there knew how to treat what I had. A doctor was sent from St. Jude’s. I was treated for 3 years. I went through 4 operations as well. Through research they have a better classification for my disease, and it is no longer under the “cancer” umbrella. The new classification for my disease is Hands Schuller Langerhans Histiocytosis, named after 3 doctors who did research. This research has benefited from fundraisers like Relay For Life. J
My family and I have been relaying since 1999. I have had my own team since 2001. Our first team was co-sponsored by my Papa and my Mom. My mom was also diagnosed with cancer a few years after my last chemo (which was on my 5th birthday). Since that first year with the Relay, we have lost 3 original members to cancer. My Papa was the last one to die from Epithiliod Leomyosarcoma in 2004. The very last thing my ‘wheeling –and-dealing’ Papa did two weeks before he died was to acquire a dunk tank for my team to use at Relay. That was my mom’s dad. Now my dad’s dad and I share the dunk tank at the Relay. My mom owns it, my Granddad stores it and keeps it working and I run it at the Relay. It’s a family thing…Relay is a family thing. |
|
This page was created by Anne Marie Reece updated on07/09/2008
|
