Kyle

On Saturday February 24, 2018 Kyle walked by me in our living room. I noticed the right side of his neck was swollen. I felt around and felt a bump, I asked him did it hurt and he said yes then no right after. I thought that it was just a swollen lymph node and it would go away after a few days. We went about our Saturday Kyle had his last basketball game of the season as well as his older brother Scotty. He was fine and had no symptoms of being sick in any way. I made a doctor’s appointment for the Wednesday of the following week with Dr. Midura his pediatrician. When he Dr. Midura saw him she checked his neck and listened to his chest, chest was clear. She felt the same bumps that I did a few days prior. She told us that we had to have a chest X-ray and blood work done immediately. We had the chest x-ray done then off to blood work. While we were doing the blood work Dr. Midura stop by to tell us the result of the chest x-ray. Dr. Midura then told me that Kyle had lymph nodes in his chest as well as the ones in his neck. She said head home & I will call you with the results of the blood work I am not leaving until I have those. We arrived home about 10 mins from leaving when my phone rang. Dr. Midura said mom you need to take Kyle to Children’s Hospital in Boston right now. Kyle’s white blood count was high and his red blood count was low. Dr. Miura said he’s anemic but mom there is something else going on. If I said this is NOT cancer I would not be doing my job as his doctor and as a mom. I broke down and fell to the floor sobbing as our world came crashing down.

I got Kyle, Scotty Jr & Scott and we packed it in the car to Children’s hospital. I couldn’t say a word as I was in shock but still had no answer. We arrived at the emergency department at Children’s I was shaking like a leaf on a tree in the fall. We went in and they took Kyle’s vitals asked a million questions, took blood work and we waited. Finally at 11 pm that night we all got to eat and then we were told we had to spend the night, still not knowing what exactly was going on. The doctor came in to explain to us as to why it was so important that we stay. We finally go to our room at 1:30 am, beyond exhausted… Kyle had spiked a fever in the emergency department but did not have any prior to that. The fevers went on for about 3 days on & off. They had nothing to do with what was going on in his chest in neck he got a cold. On Thursday Kyle went down and had a CT scan of his chest & neck, he did amazing by staying still to have it down. Also on Thursday he had to have a biopsy done of one of the lumps to determine just what was going on. It was his first surgery ever and both me & Scott were terrified this was all happening. I was putting my son in the hand’s of people I’ve never met in my life. I had to trust they knew what they were doing, they are doctor’s and do this every day of their life. The surgery was successful and they got 2 pieces of the lymph node. We had to wait for the pathology department to look at the biopsy to get an answer of some sort. Friday morning came and I knew I just knew it was not going to be good I just had the worst feeling in my stomach & heart.

Scotty Jr went to school that day he had after school sports which I thought would be a good disctraction for him. I got a call from Scott at 3:15 that Scotty made the choice to walk home from school so he could go see Kyle sooner. That Friday morning when I met with the team of doctors I asked the doctor’s if they could please wait until my husband arrived later in the day to go over the results. There was no way in the world that I was hearing anything alone. Scott finally arrived around 5, the boys went down to the playroom and someone kept them busy painting piggy banks. We went back to the room with the doctor and a nurse. She gave us the results of the biopsy and said Kyle has cancer. All I did was hold my husband and sob I just had a punch to my heart. She then said the type of cancer is Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It’s the most curable cancer there is and with the right type of medicine it will be cured in 6 months. She said because Kyle has zero signs of being sick you guys are free to go home. We’ve made these appointments for Kyle to come back for more tests. You will meet with a Team at Dana Farber and they will go over all the medicine and Chemo treatments that Kyle will be going thru.

So we packed up and finally broke free from the hospital. We were entering a whole new world and it felt like we were spinning out of control. The following week Kyle has had a PET Scan where he became radio active which was cool to see how they do the medicine for that. He did amazing for the PET scan and stayed still for 15 mins. He had his first ever EKG done he was not a fan of that at all. He also had another surgery on the following Thursday to have a Port a Cath installed in his chest to make Chemo and getting blood much easier for him. He did amazing and was a trooper for going thru all he did in just a week’s time.