Alex’s Story

Site created on May 13, 2021

Never ever did I think I would be doing a caring bridge page for our little Alex. Who would ever think my 2 year old would be diagnosed with B Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma...It all started on April 12th, Alex’s older brother Brandon felt a lump on the top of Alex’s head. I instantly felt sick to my stomach knowing this probably wasn’t a good sign. On April 15th, my Mom noticed 3 more little ones growing on his head while he was at daycare that day. I than called our doctor and begged him to see us right away because I was thinking the worst and clearly could not function at work. We were able to get an appointment with our local doctor in SE the next day. We didn’t know if it was a after affect from Covid so we decided to wait and watch to see if the lumps would go away. That weekend we noticed that his testicles were swollen so back in to the doctor again and they ran some tests again. After this we were sent to Children’s Hospital to get a second opinion. Long story short Alex was admitted to Children’s back in January for 2 weeks and we thought he had a bad virus that attacked his lymph nodes which caused an infection in his neck so this is when they removed some. At this time, they did check for cancer but nothing was found. After all this Alex was doing great and was back to his usual self. He still currently is doing good but it’s these 2 areas of concern we are worried about. We just knew something wasn’t right because these areas were just becoming larger. On May 4th, we spent the day doing a bunch of tests at Children’s and he once again had the team of doctors worried and stumped. The last test of the day was a ultrasound of his stomach where they did end up finding a lesion on his kidney. We were than told to come back up the next day which was my birthday. Not a way I wanted to spend the day but I just wanted to know Alex was going to be ok. He had multiple Ct scans, blood draws, and other tests done again. I was hoping and praying to find out good news on my birthday. It’s a birthday that I will never ever forget when finding out from the doctor that my son has some type of Cancer. 😢 We were able to come home Wed late afternoon and at that point the other boys were asking so many different questions. We than just decided to tell them the truth on what was all going on with Alex. That was so hard!!!! Tears filled the Braulick household that night. The boys were so scared and worried about their little brother. Friday the 7th, Alex had a 3 hr pet scan, 2 bone marrow biopsies, and they also decided to remove some tissue from the lumps on his head to biopsy. After this, they were finally able to detect cancer cells in these lumps. The waiting began again...back home we went and were told we will find out sometime early next week the exact diagnosis. Finally, on Tuesday we got the confirmation that Alex has B Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. We were devastated, angry, sad, and at times I thought this just has to be bad dream. We are all trying to stay strong for Alex and we are trying to think so positive that he can fight this! A friend once told me, “God only gives you what you can handle” but again Why? Why Alex? Why our family? What did we do wrong to have to be going through this? We just have trust in God during this difficult time and know that it’s all in his hands. The doctors, nurses, and everyone here has been absolutely amazing to us and I don’t know what we would do without them. I’m definitely not a writer but I will do my best to try and update this site the best I can. 💙

Newest Update

January 27, 2024

Journal entry by Lacey Braulick —

Alex’s port surgery on Thursday was a success! 
It’s still so hard to believe that his port is actually out after 3 years.  
The day did not start out so well.  Alex figured out we weren’t going to the Oncology Floor which is where he is used to going. As we headed for surgery on 2nd floor he stopped in his tracks and said, “Mom I’m not going this way!” 🥹 All I could think of too was the beginning of this journey where we found out the most devastating news no parent wants to hear. I’m sure it brought back those same memories to him. This was the place where they put his port in, where he had bone marrow biopsies, biopsies of the lymph nodes, the time they removed lymph nodes on his head and neck, and all the scans. Not to mention the kiddos crying as we walked to our Pre-op room did not help either.  It was so heartbreaking and so sad!
 After we got settled in and got thru putting him to sleep things went pretty quick! Before we knew it, they came and got me and said, “he’s starting to wake up.” Walking down the hall is when the tears started falling from my face. That’s when things really hit me! I walked up to the side of the bed where he was laying and whispered in his ear, “Alex your port is out!”😊 As he was still trying to wake up I was able to get a little smirk out of him.  He immediately was so curious what his owie looked like.  He will definitely have a pretty nice scar that will always remind of him of what a strong little boy he is!! 
On Friday he woke up pretty sore and spent most of the day on the couch.  We were told each day it will get better.   He has been very careful and cautious though of his port site.   We will definitely be laying low the next few days to allow things to heal up. 
Please continue to pray for Alex and all those who have finished and to those who are still battling.  We hope and pray that we will never have to go down this road again.  No one should ever have to go through this horrible journey. 
Thanks for following along with us!
💚The Braulicks
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