Make A Child Smile

Kainen's Story
written by dad Jonah

Kainen. A unique and special name for a unique and special child. When we chose his name we never could have imagined just how unique and how special our son would be to us, nor could we have imagined the impact that he would have on thousands of people across our country and across the world. We were so blessed the day Kainen was born and joined us here on Earth, and we are so blessed now knowing that one day soon, we will join him in Heaven.

Kainen was born in Columbia, Tennessee on May 21, 2001. He was completely healthy and a wonderful baby. He was very bright and his body developed quickly. He was walking before he was 8 months old and talking before he was a year old. He was very smart and just amazed us with his good memory, sense of humor, and ability to do things that most kids his age couldn’t do. Everything about him and his life was just so perfect.

However, in March of 2005 Kainen was diagnosed with Stage 4 Rhabdomyosarcoma, a very rare and deadly form of cancer. At an early age he had developed a knot on his lower right leg, which was where the cancer originated. It then spread to his lungs, near his groin, and into his kidney regions. The cancer also spread into his bone marrow and blood. Kainen began taking chemotherapy treatments that March, and every scan that was taken after the original showed that he was cancer free. He had a surgery in June to remove the large mass remaining in his leg, and tests revealed that it was not cancerous, nor were the cells around it. We were so thankfully for those biopsy results.

During the months of August, September, and October of 2005, Kainen underwent radiation treatment on a daily basis. He had a total number of 59 radiation treatments during that time. These treatments were done knowing that the cancerous cells had been destroyed, and were only done for precautionary measures so that the chances of the cancer coming back would be greatly reduced.

Kainen was always blessed with no serious side effects from the chemotherapy or radiation, other than hair loss. His weight relatively remained the same, and he was rarely sick because of the treatments. His blood counts were usually real low after his big doses of chemotherapy, but he did not have any serious infections or illnesses because of these procedures. He acted like a typical four year old all of the time and loved to get outside and play around, even after a heavy treatment.

In January of 2006 Kainen had a bone scan and other scans done across his entire body. The results showed he was still “cancer free” and he was allowed to stop his chemotherapy treatments nearly two months early. We were so excited and praised God as we always did regardless of our situation. Then during a period of about a week in mid-February, Kainen began complaining of severe headaches. We took him to Vanderbilt Children’s hospital and they assured us nothing was wrong, and that the headaches were the results of stress he was facing. This did not make much sense to us, as Kainen was always happy, carefree, and never seemed stressed out at all.

Well, these headaches got worse and were eventually extremely painful for Kainen. On February 22, 2006 it got so bad, and he was acting so strange, that his Mom and his PawPaw rushed him to the Vanderbilt Emergency Room. It was there that they discovered two or three large brain tumors, as well as several smaller ones, growing inside his precious little head. The ER staff gave Kainen an outrageous amount of medicines to stop the pain and to hopefully keep him alive for an hour and a half until I made it up there to see him.

Kainen did stay alive until I made it to see him, and he lived another two months after that and was surrounded every day by his parents, grandparents, and other close relatives. Despite the growing, and multiplying tumors on his brain, Kainen only had a couple of minor headaches and was only in pain a handful of times during those last two months of his life. He never suffered or required any pain medicine on a daily or consistent basis. Once again this was not because of anyone or anything that was done, but simply a testimony to how well God took care of Kainen as he went through his last days on Earth.

Kainen passed away very peacefully on April 22, 2006 at 12:10 AM, which was his PawPaw’s 49th birthday. When he left this world he was cradled in the arms of his loving mother. He was holding on tightly to my hand too. We were both speaking to Kainen and telling him how much we loved him when his spirit left his body. We never released him to God before his passing, because we had always promised ourselves that we would never give up believing he would be healed until he drew his last breath.

Kainen was permanently healed early that Saturday morning, although it wasn’t the healing that we were hoping for. When Kainen’s heart rate was rapidly dropping and his breathing was quickly fading, his Mommy whispered to him through tearful sobs, “Kainen, whenever YOU are ready to go be with Jesus it is okay…whether it is now, tomorrow, or many years from now…it is okay for you to go be with Jesus. Mommy and Daddy love you.” As soon as those words left her mouth and entered into his ear, he immediately stopped breathing and his heart stopped beating. His spirit left his body to go be with Jesus. No more medicines, no more needles, no more cancer, and no more tumors…Kainen was healed.

Once again we want to thank all of you for visiting the Make A Child Smile website, for sending the thousands of beautiful cards and loving letters to Kainen and our family, and for praying for him during his illness. There is not a strong enough adjective in the English language to describe how good so many of you have made us feel in our times of worry and sorrow. All we can say is a sincere “Thank You!” from the bottoms of our hearts.