To begin let me rewind time back to January 5, 2000.
My wife went into labor and I drove her to the only hospital in the area that delivers babies. I don't really care for this hospital and even less after my son was born but we were stuck with it because as I said it is the only hospital in the area that handles new borns.
My wife was in labor for hours and I was right there beside her the whole time. Well except for when I went to the vending machine to get a snack (I was starving). I ate my snack while holding my wife's hand. She never said a word but later found out that that wasn't my brightest idea.
Moving on, my son finally made his debut onto the world's stage. The doctor held him up and looked him over and suddenly said UH-OH! He quickly turned my son around and faced him towards my wife and just then my son had his first bodily function and he peed all over his own mother. I never expected to see anything like that so that was an eye opener for sure.
They took my son back to clean him up and do what they needed to do. It was late so my wife and I spent the night in the hospital expecting to take our bundle of joy home the next day. During the night the doctor on call came into our room and woke us up. He said that our son had group B strep probably due to some nurse not washing her hands properly before picking up our son. This is a serious infection especially for a new born.
My wife and son stayed in the hospital for a week. I would come every evening after work to see them. My wife was grateful for the break where she could get up and move around. I would take my son and lay him on my chest while I layed on the bed and let him sleep there until it was time for me to make the 45 minute drive back home.
The day finally came where we could take him and introduce him to his new home (we are still living in the same house today). Everything was going good. Every evening and on my days off I would take him and care for him while my wife got some well deserved sleep. He was breast fed and she would express some milk into a bottle so I could feed him while she slept. Now we never could get him to take a pacifier. No his pacifier was my thumb. He would grab it and suck on it. He spit out any pacifier that we attempted to give him and cry until I let him have my thumb. That ended when he started teething.
Now as far as getting him to sleep in his crib for the first month or so that was impossible. The only way we could get him to sleep and sleep the whole night through was to put him on our bed between us and he would wiggle and fuss until he got his nose in my arm pit. Then he would pass out for the night (can you blame him?).
I couldn't find his picture when he was a new born.
One day I came home from work. I walked in the door and I could hear him screaming, crying and fussing. I came around the corner to see my wife washing dishes and my some in his car seat/carrier sitting in the middle of the kitchen table. He took one look at me and smiled ear to ear and started to giggle. My wife spun around on her heels stuck her finger in my face and said "you are never going to work again!" She said all he did was fuss and scream all day since the time he woke up and as soon as you get home he is all giggles.
Well for the first four years of his life it was pretty normal. I would take him outside to play as much as possible. Water slide and swimming pool in the summers, making snowmen and sleding in the winter.
One day we had noticed that he would walk like he was drunk. He would stagger and fall. Then he would grab his head fall to the floor screaming it hurt. Then as suddenly as it came on it would go away and he would be back to playing again. We decided to watch him for a while to see if this continues. One day I got a call from the school nurse. She said my son had suddenly vomited in the cafeteria. I called my wife and she got him to the doctor that afternoon. The doctor took one look into my son's eyes and told my wife to get him to Vanderbilt hospital a.s.a.p. She called me at work and told me we had to get him to Vanderbilt. I didn't hesitate. I got home as fast as I could,got them both and started our two hour voyage to Nashville. The E.R. was waiting for us and they took him right in. They did a catscan on him then put us in a room where we watched the Disney movie The Incredibles for the first time. While we were waiting they called in the two surgeons. The surgeons came into our room to tell us that there was a mass about the size of a tennis ball on his brain stem. They couldn't tell us much more other than they scheduled emergency surgery for the 6th of April and it was already the 4th of April. They moved us up to the 4th floor where I sat in a chair next to his bed. They gave my wife a small private room where she could sleep. As for me I coudn't sleep. He would grab his head and cry in pain and curl up on my arm and all I could do was hold him tight and cry.
The next morning they moved him to pre-op and we went with him. They had to do a spinal tap ans take some spinal fluid for testing. When they had him all prepped and ready to go to the O.R. he looked up at me and said daddy don't worry I'm not scared. The tears were flowing down my cheeks now as I listened to my four year old boy being so brave.
They took him back and he spent 9 hours in surgery while the doctors went cell by cell to make sure they got it all. For three days straight I didn't eat, sleep or even use the little boys room. I was terrified!
A week after surgery we had an appointment at the oncology office. It qas for early morning but the doctor made us his last appointment on purpose. When we finally got to see him he told us that he got the report back. Not only was the tumor cancer but his spinal fluid was completely filled with cancer cells as well. He said that my son only had a 25% chance of living until Christmas. He then took my wife out of the room to talk treatment options away from my son. I stayed in the room with my boy. My son was leaning up against me while I was sitting in the chair. He turned around and looked at me and said "daddy I'm ready to go". I asked him where he was going. He pointed up and said "to heaven". I got up pulled my wife back into the room and said I had to go and left. I went down to the parking garage and went all the way to the back and lost it. I broke down and cried like a baby. I pulled myself together and went back to the room to get them.
We spent two years in hell with his chemo and radiation treatments. My wife and he stayed at the Ronald McDonald house Monday through Friday so he could get his treatments. I would come up Wednesday evening and stay until Saturday morning when we could bring him home.
He stopped eating because of his treatment so they had to put a Mickey button in. That is where a feedind tube goes directly into his stomach. For a year he lived strictly on a feeding tube. He had an I.V. poll with the pump and feed on it. He had to take that poll everywhere he went. We named the poll SLIM.
There were times that he had absolutely no immune system and was so sick that he had no strength. Those were the times that he was scared the most. He asked me for a picture of Jesus to help him get through his fears. We didn't have one so I called a friend of mine who we went to church with and he said he had one. So I went and got it from him.
It's still hanging on his wall today.
When he got scared he would hold this picture and stare at it until he calmed down. One day I came home from work and he was on the couch with this picture. He said "daddy Jesus was here". I asked what he meant by that and he said that Jesus came out of the picture and stood before him and told him not to be scraed because everything was going to be alright.
I forgot to mention that we had just about every church from Maine to Texas praying for our son. A week after they said that his spine was full of cancer they retested him and couldn't find a single cancer cell. Now you can't tell me that prayer doesn't work. My son is living proof that it does!
He was declared in remission and was able to start a normal life once again. He got back to school and through it all he kept his humor and good spirits. Here us his Valentines that he made us.
You are probably tired of reading by now so I will just end on this note. Just last month he celebrated his 18th birthday and is now signed up for the sective service. He truely is our miracle child. I never let a day go by without telling him that I love him.