Life-changing diagnosis for Houston family
Patient's Name: Cash C.
Parent's Name: Chad C.
Home Town: Houston, TX
Current Age: 3
Date of Diagnosis: May 9, 2019 (3 years old)
Diagnosis: T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
How did you find out Cash had cancer?
Initially, we noticed some bruising on Cash’s legs that looked a little like mosquito bites. We took him to the doctor and they said it’s probably nothing. Then, a few days later, my wife Mona noticed red markings on his testicles and the underside of his arms. Also, his mouth was sore when we brushed his teeth. So she took him to the pediatrician again, they did a blood test and then told her to get him to Texas Children’s immediately.
She called me and I was in a meeting, and I just ran out of there. We got here, and they said it looked like cancer, but they wouldn’t be able to tell until they had results from a series of tests. He was admitted immediately into the ICU because his white blood cell count was so high. The next day, our oncologist Dr. Rayne Rouce introduced herself, explained the type of cancer he had, T-Cell ALL, what treatment would be like, likelihood of success, etc.
How did you react?My wife called me and said ‘They think it might be cancer.’ I was in a meeting and I just like ran out of there. My father died of cancer, my wife’s mother had breast cancer. When I think cancer, I immediately think the worst, because my father died. My wife’s mother survived, so she did not immediately assume the worst. It’s interesting how you connect your personal experience to it.
I was freaking out on the way to the emergency room, and when I got there, I was very angry, barking at everyone, crying. I remember my wife telling me, ‘You need to get yourself together because they didn’t give him a death sentence. We don’t know how this is going to go.’ Thankfully, I did pull it together. Because they’re giving you a lot of new information that you need to be paying attention to, and they’re asking you a lot of important questions. You have to put your feelings and fears to the side and focus on what they’re telling you.
And now? How are you handling it now?Well, I still have my moments (of freaking out). But, I felt better after I met Dr. Rouce. She’s very personable; I felt almost right away like she was family. She explained to us that they have the best treatment here and that his type of cancer, if anyone had to have cancer, this would be the one to have, because it has such a high success rate of being cured forever.
It’s life changing. The hardest part is that your child and your life change in an instant. Everything you knew up until that point is gone.
How so? Can you give me some specifics?
First of all, your child changes a lot. A happy-go-lucky, outgoing little 3 year old suddenly is upset and angry all the time because he’s on steroids. And he kind of regresses – basically stops talking, has to relearn how to walk and has to go back to diapers, even though he was fully potty trained before. He stays up all night and won’t sleep in his bed.
There are a lot of things that make this easier on us than many other families here. My wife and I have not been back to work since May. We are extremely fortunate that our jobs have allowed us to do this. Our second youngest child is 13, and our oldest is in college. We don’t have to worry about who’s going to watch them. We live less than 10 minutes away from here, from one of the best children’s cancer centers in the world. And Cash has one of the best types of childhood cancer as far as survival rates. All of that makes this ‘easier,’ and yet…. it’s still a nightmare. It’s exactly as bad as you would imagine. Worse. All you can do is adjust to your new normal, pray and just do your best to get through each day. You have no choice.
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