Small town athlete hits a bump in the road
Patient's Name: Weston S.
Parent's Name: Brooke S.
Home Town: East Bernard, TX
Current Age: 16
Date of Diagnosis: June 28, 2019 (15 years old)
Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia
How did you find out Weston had cancer?
He plays football, basketball and baseball. At the beginning of summer, he started strength and conditioning, and I noticed that he was kind of behind the other kids. Weaker, slower than everyone. I’m telling him he must not be drinking enough water, eating well or getting enough sleep. His coach called me on June 27th, and said, ‘I think you need to get him checked out for mono because he’s not himself.’ We went in that day, they ran a bunch of tests. Got a call the next morning that said ‘You need to take him to Texas Children’s. His blood levels, count and blasts, it looks like leukemia.’
How did you react?Honestly, I was mostly thinking about logistics, getting him out of his baseball game, praying I could make it here okay. I’m not used to driving in a big town. Also, I was thinking I knew there was something wrong. I never expected it to be cancer, but when she said it to me, right away it sort of made sense.
What happened next?We were admitted on June 28th and we didn’t leave until July 23rd. His first round of chemo, he had a rash all over, a little bit of itching, but no fever or other side effects. He’s lost a lot of weight and muscle tone, but that’s partially because he was such an athlete, training all the time, when it started.
His treatment plan is at least five or six cycles, so until January. He doesn’t have it in his spine right now, which is very good news. Afterwards it will be maintenance for a few years. I am a teacher and I’m taking off this semester. Weston is going to be in the hospital a lot, doing school in the hospital or at home.
How is Weston handling it?
We live in a small town, lots of prayers, lots of support, lots of people coming to visit, so it’s kind of kept his spirits up. So far, it’s been good. Dr. Stevens brought in a psychologist, just to see how he’s doing, and she said he’s in a good place right now. I said, ‘Can you come back in three or four months, when he’s not doing school or sports and his friends get really busy. You know, teenagers aren’t going to tell mom everything.’
How are you and the rest of the family handling it?The whole thing with us is really our faith. I’m not going to question why or what’s going to happen or any of that, we’re just going to do what the doctors tell us to do. They told me not to get on the internet and look it up. So I haven’t been on the internet. We’re just praying and trusting that we’re going to get through this. Honestly, all I’m thinking about at this point is how thankful I am that we caught it when we did and got to the best place right away.
What has been the hardest part of this so far?Just seeing him go through this. You know, they’re waking him up in the middle of the night to give him medicine, get another blood sample. He’s having to tell me how much he urinated, if he had a bowel movement. There’s no privacy for him anymore. I’m sure that’s hard for him, like going back to being a little kid.
The first time they told us they were going to let him go home, I was like ‘WHAT?! Do I know everything? Am I going to be able to take care of that line?’ It’s almost like taking home a newborn. Luckily my daughter is a patient care assistant and wants to become a nurse, so she did the line care class with me, and we’re doing fine.
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