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Meet Stephen Jr.
On March 12, 2007 our son, Stephen Jr., turned ten years old. Who would have guessed that less than two weeks later our lives would change forever?
Jr. complained that his left knee was swollen and bothering him. The next morning I took him to the pediatrician’s office where the doctor looked at his leg and immediately got us in to see an orthopedic doctor the same day. We arrived at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and the emergency room doctors sent Jr. for x-rays. When the results were in, they called us out of Jr.’s room, so we knew that something was terribly wrong.
It was our worst nightmare, they said our son had the “c” word, cancer, a word no one, especially the parent of a young child, ever wants to hear. They told us they were calling in The Tomorrow Fund doctors to come and speak with us. They wanted to do a full body CAT scan to see if there was anything else visible in our son’s body. When the results from that CAT scan were in, they called us out of Jr.’s room again and dropped another bomb on us, he had a cancer spot showing on his lung.
We were then told that Jr. would have his first operating room visit where two procedures would be performed, a port was placed in his chest to have the chemo and other drugs infused into his body, and a bone biopsy was performed to examine the tumor in more detail. On March 27, our official battle to fight these cancers began. Our son was admitted for the first of 22 rounds of chemotherapy. In between chemo treatments our son had two other biopsy surgeries, prior to his lung surgery and bone replacement surgery. The cancer on his lung was removed on May 10, 2007 and his 12-hour surgery to remove the tumor in his leg (and replace that bone with cadaver bone) took place on May 31, 2007. Our son had another surgery on Jun 2, 2007 to stop the growth plate in the right knee, to allow his legs to grow evenly.
I am happy to say that our son finished all of his chemo treatments by February 15, 2008 and is currently doing very well. We were admitted to Hasbro Children’s Hospital for approximately 270 days, had 8 procedures done in 7 surgeries, and had 22 rounds of chemo. Our family is thankful and indebted to all of The Tomorrow Fund doctors, nurses, hospital staff, The Tomorrow Fund office staff, social workers, child life specialist, the RI Blood Center, and all of the wonderful people who continue to donate blood, blankets, toys, and all the little necessities, including Band-Aids and bubbles that help to make this nightmare a little more bearable for children and their families.
Jr. complained that his left knee was swollen and bothering him. The next morning I took him to the pediatrician’s office where the doctor looked at his leg and immediately got us in to see an orthopedic doctor the same day. We arrived at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and the emergency room doctors sent Jr. for x-rays. When the results were in, they called us out of Jr.’s room, so we knew that something was terribly wrong.
It was our worst nightmare, they said our son had the “c” word, cancer, a word no one, especially the parent of a young child, ever wants to hear. They told us they were calling in The Tomorrow Fund doctors to come and speak with us. They wanted to do a full body CAT scan to see if there was anything else visible in our son’s body. When the results from that CAT scan were in, they called us out of Jr.’s room again and dropped another bomb on us, he had a cancer spot showing on his lung.
We were then told that Jr. would have his first operating room visit where two procedures would be performed, a port was placed in his chest to have the chemo and other drugs infused into his body, and a bone biopsy was performed to examine the tumor in more detail. On March 27, our official battle to fight these cancers began. Our son was admitted for the first of 22 rounds of chemotherapy. In between chemo treatments our son had two other biopsy surgeries, prior to his lung surgery and bone replacement surgery. The cancer on his lung was removed on May 10, 2007 and his 12-hour surgery to remove the tumor in his leg (and replace that bone with cadaver bone) took place on May 31, 2007. Our son had another surgery on Jun 2, 2007 to stop the growth plate in the right knee, to allow his legs to grow evenly.
I am happy to say that our son finished all of his chemo treatments by February 15, 2008 and is currently doing very well. We were admitted to Hasbro Children’s Hospital for approximately 270 days, had 8 procedures done in 7 surgeries, and had 22 rounds of chemo. Our family is thankful and indebted to all of The Tomorrow Fund doctors, nurses, hospital staff, The Tomorrow Fund office staff, social workers, child life specialist, the RI Blood Center, and all of the wonderful people who continue to donate blood, blankets, toys, and all the little necessities, including Band-Aids and bubbles that help to make this nightmare a little more bearable for children and their families.