Finding Strength In Family

On the morning of April 12th,  the unimaginable happened...

    

To all of us he is "Nicholas" or "Nick" a 33 year old guy full of life and personality. Either of the two there will be one name that soon no other will ever trump...the most important name he will ever be given in this world, a name that when spoken can and will melt his heart.


This name is "Daddy."

    

So please take a moment to share in his story. Although I can assure you no story will ever fully explain what a great guy he is and unfortunately this "drawing the short straw" situation he was forced into.

 

A morning that started just like any other which soon became a life altering one. I wonder how many would pay mind in noticing a sudden appearance of a baseball sized lump under their arm. Thankfully Nick did resulting in an ultrasound the following day when many others would "Google diagnosis" themselves.


As if the lump was not scary enough now it was onto a biopsy procedure, stressed to be done sooner than later. Janet waited anxiously as would any wife in the waiting room, then to hear the surgeon say 2 lymph nodes were clearly abnormal. What unimaginable things must have been running through her head. So close to the end of her pregnancy. As parents we know the time when we double and triple check the baby's new room to make sure everything is just perfect but what is the most important is that "IT'S TIME DADDY!!!" bag. These things should be on her mind. Not the thoughts we all know would run through our minds with this news...


On May 10th they saw the oncologist for the first time. The waiting room would be hard enough to sit through let alone the diagnosis they wouldn't be able to get up and run from. The biopsy results showed Nick had a rare and aggressive lymphoma called " T cell Histiocyte-rich B cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma." I know what you're thinking "a name that complex can't be a good thing." Well we would be correct. How hard it must have been on them both to just hear the diagnosis but then to find that's so rare their long practicing oncologist has not seen/treated it before. THEN to boot be told survival rate at 5 years was 50%.


That percentage was just not going to do. He has too much to live for and so very soon a gift Janet would give him that never would there be another gift in this world like it...a daughter. A little girl soon to be welcomed into this world named "Erika." He would not let anything or anyone take that from him. A child gives you strength you never knew existed in you. She along with Janet will always be his reason to find more strength in himself even if he found himself at his breaking point. They will always be his reason to exist.


I couldn't imagine being in a position with a new baby and expanding family to now provide for. Someone who has always worked so very hard to be suddenly hit with the financial obligation they were facing in the end well over $20,000 being their responsibility. Now I ask you how many of us have that at our disposal? Janet soon to be on unpaid maternity leave as would any new mother as to be expected. And this is why I looked to others for not charity but with the thought if it were you or I forced into a situation so devastating would you hope someone would care enough to help lift you up. Personally I would. We all plan on giving our kids anything their heart desires. Not spending their first year of college tuition on medical treatment to feel the joy of seeing that smile as you send them off to kindergarten at 5.


Now with the porta-cath he has begun aggressive chemotherapy. A round every 3 weeks for the next 18 weeks.


At a time when these soon to be parents should be on edge for that "DADDY IT'S TIME!!!!" moment a black cloud floats just above their heads. Soon they will truly come to find that the little person they have been so anxiously awaiting 9 months to meet will become this ray of sunshine to break any cloud on any of their darkest days. This little girl who hasn't even come into this world yet holds something so needed right now. That ability to make someone so lost in their love for another and a smile that could ease every pain.