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Welcome to Alex's Page. This page was created to keep friends and family up to date.
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Alex was born April 1, 2002 to Craig and Barb who had waited for him a long time. What a blessing!
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On December 7, 2004 Alex was dianoged with stage 4 neuroblastoma. The tumor was found in his abdomenal area and was attached to the main artery that supplies the lower body with blood flow.
Two years ago Alex endured 6 rounds of high-dose chemo; 7 1/2 hours of surgery to remove the bulk of the tumor; 96 hours of continuous chemo followed by a bone marrow transplant; 15 rounds of radiation and six rounds of Accutane. We are still waiting for Alex's bone marrow to recover.
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Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
Journal
Saturday, June 28, 2008 7:12 PM CDT Hi Everyone,
I just thought I would let you know we have not fallen off the face of the earth.....we are still here in Cleveland. The new picture is of Alex at his preschool graduation picnic. Can you believe it? Alex is on his way to Kindergarten!
Alex is doing great. Tommorow (June 29th) he will be three years out from transplant -- it is nothing short of a miracle.
We've been busy since Summer started. We still are at the doctor's office or some kind of therapist two to three times some weeks. Alex is doing occupational therapy once a week to keep up with his writing skills, so he won't be behind when he starts school in August. Alex is still catching up on his immunizations. I think he should be up-to-date with his shots at the end of this year.
I have to tell you this story because it was a huge lesson for me..........Alex is getting older and, therefore, understanding more and more about what he has gone through. He knows he has had cancer. One day he saw a picture of himself bald, and he told Craig and I that he felt SO SICK and that he had no energy. WOW! As his parents, when we hear stuff like that coming from him, our hearts ache.
SO, on with my story......School was still in session and Alex was getting dressed in our bathroom. He didn't have a shirt on and he said to me "mom, what is this scar from?" He had never asked me about his scars before. I had kinda dreaded the day he would ask. I told him that was where his medi-port use to be. He then pointed to another scar.....where his broviac use to be. Then, he asked what the "big long scratch" was along his right rib cage. I told him that is where the doctors removed the "enemy in his tummy". He said "oh, the enemy that is called cancer?" I said yep, that's the one. I also told him that those are also reminders of how brave he is. He said "OH" and walked out of the bathroom.
Now I know I could have been happy and thankful that Alex was standing there, but that really made me sad. Why did my child have to get cancer?
After Alex left for school, I was cleaning up the kitchen and listening to my ipod. Steven Curtis Chapman's "Cinderella Edition" has been a favorite of mine. There are three new songs on this edition of the album that are great songs. The last song is called "Beautiful Scars". The words of the chorus are "beautiful scars, beautiful scars, reminders of the wounded love that has carried us this far". Of course, I started crying........because later in the song it talks about "for us he was wounded, for us he was forsaken, our wounded healer suffered to set us free.....see his hands and his feet".
I have not looked at Alex's scars in the same way since. There are now "beautiful scars" to me. Alex is here with us. He is SO energetic. He went to Safety Town this week. He is going to be taking swimming lessons in a couple of weeks. He loves going to school and Sunday school........Last year at this time, he couldn't handle being around his peers. He would totally lose it and sometimes even pound his head on the floor!
Three years ago Alex could hardly walk. We had to coax him to walk down the hallway. He would cry and say "please don't make me do this, I can't" Now we can't stop him from running.
Alex's next clinic appointment/platelet check is July 17th. He's been so active that he is quite bruised......I hope he still has a platelet count!
Thanks for checking in on us......
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