Laying in bed last night I kept hearing a noise in the distance. At first I thought was it a cat outside? But then I realized… it was crying… it was Joey crying.  He had been dealing with pain on and off for weeks now but it had become unbearable last night.

Joey has missed about six days of school since mid-August due to leg and hip pain. He ends up in the nurses office almost daily, sometimes a few times a day, to stretch and try to deal with the pain. It often becomes too much and he comes home early from school.

This is a side effect from Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (Histio or LCH). LCH has recently been reclassified as a cancer instead of a cancer-like disease. Joey’s white blood cells attacked his hip bone eating it away. After a month or more of excruciating pain he was diagnosed, had major surgery, spent a lot of time in Cincinnati Children’s Medical Hospital, spent months in a wheel chair and years in physical therapy. The Histio is inactive at this time but the pain isn’t. In fact, it has become more and more frequent. The unexplained pains can last an hour, days or weeks. It prevents him from being able to do normal kid things

His sis gives him a lift

We have tried prescription pain meds, over the counter pain meds, yoga, acupuncture, Reiki, vitamins, herbs, a special diet, massage, chiropractor, heat, ice, a tens unit and lots of physical therapy. Medicine doesn’t seem to help at all. The multi vitamin, protien shake and Turmeric definitely doesn’t hurt him so he continues to take it. Reiki, massage, acupuncture, PT, heat and the tens unit give temporary relief. Temporary relief is better than no relief so we continue to do these things no matter the cost or sacrifice.

I spoke to the lead LCH expert via email recently. Dr. McClain told me that the unexplained pain seems to be common in those with bone LCH and he hopes to some day figure out why and how to get rid of this horrible side effect. We can only hope and pray that he or another doctor figures it out. But until then, we continue to try anything we can think of.  And when Joey isn’t looking, I break down in tears because it’s not fair that my almost 13-year-old boy has to live with chronic pain.

Hot tub therapy