I hope my 11-year-old son Joey has a broken leg! Or maybe a chipped shin bone! Wait, maybe he has torn his meniscus! That would be AWESOME! IT WOULD SERIOUSLY BE THE BEST NEWS A MOM COULD WISH FOR!
I’m not crazy or one of those moms who wishes illness upon her child. I actually love my son to the moon and back and would be willing to take on any pain for him. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. Joey is no stranger to pain. He had ear infections, strep throat and many minor surgeries since he was only a few weeks old. In April of 2012, Joey was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis causing him to have a lesion removed and a bone graft of his hip (Read about diagnosis). Well, for about the last two weeks he’s been complaining of knee and shin pain. It’s progressively gotten worse. So bad in fact that he is using crutches and missed the last two days of school.
LCH or Histio, is a cancer-like disease. It causes his white blood cells to go nuts. They think he’s sick so they go into action. Only there is nothing bad to attack so they end up eating his bones away. So my son is having severe pain. My immediate thought is ‘oh crap, his white blood cells are out it again. The Histio is back.’ My second thought is ‘Oh God, please let my son have a broken leg, a chipped bone or a torn meniscus.’ I find myself pleading with God to give him one of these ailments instead.
You see, if it is Histio, it won’t “JUST” be surgery, a bone graft, 15 weeks of a wheelchair, months on end of physical therapy, etc… It could be all or some of those things but it will also be chemotherapy. Chemotherapy: the use of chemical agents to treat diseases. That scares me to death! I’ve never had chemo and I’ve never discussed it with someone who has. All I know is what I’ve seen on TV. When I hear of chemo I think of extremely thin, sickly looking people with tons of tubes, loosing their hair and vomiting. Now my friend Aimee assures me this isn’t what it’s really like but it scares me to death.
One step at a time though, right?
So the first step was to see our oncologist, which we did today. The second step was to get x-rays. We did that and are waiting on results. Unfortunately x-rays probably won’t show Histio but they will show a broken bone!!!! Wohoo for a possible broken bone! The next step is an MRI. I am waiting to hear when that has been scheduled for. That will show us if it’s Histio. If nothing shows up there, we move on to a PET Scan.
So I am asking this of my readers tonight as crazy as it may sound. I know something is wrong. My son is in SEVERE pain. So this is what I ask of you. Pray and hope for a broken bone, a chipped bone or a torn meniscus. Pray and hope for something other than Histio because Histio is one bad mother… and because I’m afraid of chemo.
Seriously, if you pray, please pray a lot for my son to be well and strong and for our family as well. And if you don’t pray, send us some good vibes and positive thoughts! Joey and his 14-year-old sister love to read your encouraging comments so comment away!