Christopher's Story
written by mom Cathy

Christopher was born on October 9th, 1989 in Bremerton, WA. He was never a sick child. But had a problem with his lungs. He never took any medication for the asthma, as they thought he would grow out of it... He went to Montessori school for three years and then went to public school in the first grade.

Towards the end of the school year, he had started to bruise and the teacher told me of him complaining of back pain. I flagged all of this off, as I thought he was a boy, played hard, got bruises and as for the back issue, I thought it was those hard chairs they had them sitting in for hours... Then before school was out for the summer, he got sick. High fever of 104º. I took him to the doctor and he thought he had the flu, but to bring him back if he wasn't better by Monday. Well, he was much worse, and back to the doctor he went.

Christopher had x-rays taken, blood taken, shots given, and then I was taken out of the room and told that he had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia with Acute Myeloid Leukemia markers. I was sent to a Hospital in Tacoma, WA... We stayed there for quite some time and he had a port-a-cath put in him. He also had a bone marrow aspiration and spinal tap done. He was diagnosed on May 12th 1997 at the age of 7½ years old. His treatment was going to be 3 years and 2 months, but he relapsed about 2 years into the protocol, July of 1999.. Mind you he was in and out of the hospital this whole time... He never was quite the norm as the statistics go with these kids. Each child is so very different.

Anyhow, we knew then Christopher would have to have a Bone Marrow Transplant. His dad was the match. Not a perfect match, but a match... we went to Seattle to have the transplant done, and he relapsed again, November of 1999. So back we went to Mary Bridge to have more chemo to get him into remission and once again to go back to Seattle for the transplant... We made it there, and had the TBI (Total Body Irradiation) and cytoxin, and he also had to have a plasma exchange because his blood type would change. He made it through that and it lasted about 16 months. Then I just knew the cancer was back again. Although I was promised that it would not be back because there were no blasts on his blood slides, but I just knew.

A bone marrow aspiration was done, and there it was... Cancer once again. Relapse... So we were in the hospital having chemo again, trying to get him into remission. Christopher had 5 seizures and that was something he has never had before in his life. He had those little ones that I just thought he was ignoring me, but they were also seizures... But the 5 seizures were big ones. We will never know as to why he had these. But the CT scan showed no stroke, blood clot, or anything wrong inside his brain...

After Christopher had these seizures, which were very scary to both of us, we stayed for 2½ months in the hospital. We got one pass to go to Fred Hutchinson for a follow-up and Christopher was so sick. He was also invited to one of his friends birthday party's, and he also got a pass to go to this, as he said that he would not miss this for all the world. He was so sick at the party, that we spent much of the time in the bathroom... We of course, went back to the hospital and never used his whole pass for the day.

He needed to be hooked back up to his Morphine PCA pump for pain. We both have a very high tolerance to pain, and him needing the Morphine, well, I knew he was really in pain. We did get to go home for almost 3 days which I knew he enjoyed. He asked for me to cook him a Cornish Game Hen for dinner... I did, and that would be the very last dinner I ever cooked for him... We went back to the hospital again in the middle of the night, again that would be the last hospital run for us ever...

We stayed on the floor for a while and were put into PICU then back out on the floor. But one night he could not breath good and had the oxygen on pretty high, and was still having trouble breathing, so we went back into the PICU unit again and he was placed on a Bi-pap machine to help him breath better. He was still very alert and could drink some liquid, take the breathing machine off for a few seconds and just place oxygen on his face.

But one day, I was going downstairs to get something to eat and he yelled for me not to leave. I knew something was very wrong, but I assured him I would be right back. Then I returned, and I laid with him on his bed... The next thing I knew was him saying to me "I can't breath, I can't breath" and he grabbed my hands and the last words he ever spoke to me were "MOM I LOVE YOU"... He had a cardiac arrest and turned blue. He was down for 11 minutes and I was rubbing his feet while the doctors and nurses were working on him to intubate him and get him on Life Support System...

His heart never stopped beating though! While he was on Life Support, he was still alert, so they had to put him into a medically induced coma. But he still heard everything. I was told that he had VOD (Veno-Occlusive Disease) which is an uncommon complication following bone marrow transplantation. It is thought to arise because of a nonspecific vasculitis arising in response to the inflammatory response to the bone marrow transplant (BMT) preparative regiment. Christopher violently shook his head NO! I found that so hard to believe that this could be happening so late in the bone marrow transplant.

He ended up being on kidney dialysis, he was also on insulin, before he entered the PICU unit, and was able to give himself his own shots in the tummy! While in the PICU unit he was hypertensive and hypotensive, his heart was getting tired. After learning that the Kidney machine was not working, I said let's just stop this, and we stopped. Christopher eventually had total organ failure... He also had e-coli, staph and sepsis in his blood. He also had complained of his stomach hurting and his tummy was growing larger and larger. He looked like he was going to have twins. So the day before his passing, he had a CT scan of his tummy and they found a hematoma the size of a football in his tummy. I was then told that no doctor in the world word operate on him. So I had to tell my only child that he was going to die... They figured that he might live through the night. So I got to sit on a chair all night long, holding his hand as I dozed in and out...

The next morning a nurse came in and told me to get in bed with him, talk to him and hold him, as this would be the day he would pass and become an Angel. I asked for my dear friend Michelle to be called to come and be with us while this was happening, as she was there for us most often. I also asked for his Doctor to be called in, so they paged him, and then came in later telling me that if the Doctor did not show up soon, he would not get to say good-bye to him.

We waited as Christopher's vital signs were going down, but when he heard his Doctor's voice, he just listened, and that is what he was waiting for. We decided to remove the tube from his mouth to let him die with dignity. Once that was removed, he took a breath, and then became an Angel in no time. It was over, no longer was I a mother to a living child any longer... I stayed in the room while they did what they had to do to him, and I waited for him to leave the hospital and go to the funeral home. I had promised him that I would be with him until the very end and when he was taken away from me in the hospital to go to the funeral home, then I knew I had done everything I had promised him.

We had 2 memorial services for him and they were wonderful. Before his passing, he had asked me to take ½ of his ashes and rent a Sea Plane and fly over the bay, land and place his ashes in the bay, then do another fly by... We did this on August 14th 2002. We floated flowers in the bay, and we also floated over 100 balloons in the air too.

The one thing that will stick in my mind is that when Christopher was in the PICU unit and on the Bi-pap machine, he asked me "Mom, do you believe in GOD?" I answered, "Well of course I do, why do you ask me that?", and he let me know that GOD was in his room, and he asked me to move my body, as I was in the way of his view of Him... I asked Christopher what he had to say to him, and he said that GOD said nothing to him, all he did was wink! Then he was gone, and the room was filled with people he did not know... I figured them to be his Angels, as my Aunt had made him a website with her daughter, and many other Angels on it. He studied this website quite a lot before he got sicker... So now I have peace as to where he is, I had not a question in my mind as to where he was going, I knew he was on his way to Heaven...

I still talk to him daily and I think of him daily. He was my best friend... I have now dedicated myself to the Team in Training, as he was an Honor Patient with them for many years. I will be doing my annual Marathon each December in Honolulu, doing a 26.2 mile Marathon to try and help find a cure for Leukemia and other blood related diseases... He was a blessing in my life, and I am so thankful that I got to have him with me for almost 12 years. He is my HERO!

I love and miss you my dear son...
Love forever, your mom and best friend,
Cathy