The main focus of this story is “HOPE” – in some situations it may seem very elusive but we must always try to find it because sometimes it is all we have to hold onto!
When Cancer Hits Close to Home!!
Two and a half years ago a beautiful little boy was born. His name is Noah. How proud everyone was having the first grandson/ nephew in the family. Especially my sister-in-law, after battling fertility problems for 10 years. My sister in laws pregnancy went very smoothly and Noah was born healthy and on time on September 15th, 2013.
That Christmas I was so excited because it was going to be the first Christmas in a long time that we would have a little baby for the holidays. It was also a very special Christmas because on Christmas day my brother and sister in law asked my husband and I if we would be Noah’s godparents. Needless to say we were very honoured and of course we accepted.
In early March Noah was baptised. He was quite cranky throughout the ceremony as he was teething pretty badly the last week or so, at least that is all we thought it was. Only a few days later Noah was inconsolable and his mother was frantic so she decided to take him to emerge after exhausting all efforts at home to soothe his pain.
The next day I received the most dreaded phone call. One I never thought I would receive, not in my family, not in my lifetime!
But my mother confirmed it my 5 month old nephew has Leukemia!!!
The first few minutes were just utter shock, then sadness and tears set in, then I felt complete anger.
They say you can’t understand fully what it is like until it happens to you or to someone close to you and that saying is so true!
Noah had his four rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant at Sick Kids’ Hospital in Toronto, ON and returned home to Sudbury 7 months later in full remission.
The family celebrated and rejoiced!
But our happiness was very short-lived as Noah relapsed after only being home for 2 months.
I don’t know what was more devastating, the initial diagnosis or his relapse.
The relapse to me was much worse because we had just got Noah back, a healthy little baby once again and now his tiny little body was going to have to fight off this terrible disease again.
The outlook was grim even the doctors did not have high hopes of achieving remission the second time around, but against all odds they were able to find him a second stem cell match and perform another bone marrow transplant.
After another 8 months in Toronto at Sick Kids’, Noah was in full remission again and sent home.
We are all keeping our fingers crossed that this remission is long-term. Noah is 2 ½ years old now and out of that he spent only 9 months of that time at home.
He is a smart and wonderful little boy and is progressing normally except for being a little on the tiny side which is to be expected after all his little body had to go through.
We hope that part of Noah’s journey is over now and he will only continue to grow and be healthy!
I learned through all of this that sometimes all you have is “HOPE” even though sometimes you have to dig really deep to find it. Our family hoped and prayed and our prayers were answered. Now all we can do once again is “HOPE” that Noah has a long lasting remission.
A loving aunt & godmother