Teddy started wetting the bed, which was very odd for him, even as a 4-year-old. That graduated to severe nightly stomach pains. He had some constipation, so we chalked it up to that. When things didn’t improve I brought Teddy to the ER at Lurie’s Children’s hospital in Chicago. Shortly after arriving and receiving an MRI, we were told Teddy had a tumor on his kidney. And the next day, the tumor was removed as well as his right kidney. A week later Teddy started radiation and chemo.
Teddy has gone through 7 days of Radiation and 22 weeks of Chemo (so far). He’s also had 2 blood transfusions throughout his treatment due to low hemoglobin. He has a hard time walking too far because of the chemo treatment (it sort of builds up in his joints and makes them painful). Other than that, he’s so resilient, happy, and brave.
Being diagnosed during a pandemic, we needed to be extra careful and protect his compromised immune system. Teddy’s still 4, so it’s still hard for him to grasp the gravity of cancer. His little brother, Auggie, was left wondering why Teddy couldn’t walk him into preschool or wasn’t around to play with him all the time. Teddy now suffers from nightmares every night and has a hard time falling asleep.
The good news is that Teddy is in the home stretch! He should be done with his cancer treatment by May and he moved into Auggie’s room and that has helped with his sleeping. Things are looking up!
When I heard the words “We have difficult news…” all I could think is I can’t watch our beloved son suffer. I just cannot do that, but Teddy has been so resilient and brave -even when he’s scared. His courage has given us courage. Early on in his treatment, when he was trying to talk himself into taking some icky tasting medicine, he said: “I’m going to do tough things and I’m going to be stronger because I did them.” This has been our mantra during his entire treatment and will live in us for a very long time.
Hope session by Jessie Hearn Photography | Facebook | Instagram