Make A Child Smile

Caleb's Story
written by mom Cheyenne

Caleb was born on December 10, 2001. I had a normal pregnancy and delivered c-section. He weighed 8lbs and 2ozs at birth but shortly after he lost down to 6lbs even. They did some testing on him but couldn't figure out why such a drop in weight. Two weeks later, he started to pick his weight back so they just assumed it was my breast milk that took a while to come in.

He started to grow like a fine young boy. At about 6 months old, he started getting these bug bite looking spots all over him and he would then scratch until he had them all infected. The doctors kept telling me it was Eczema especially since they only appeared from April to September. We started with the cream. He caught Pneumonia at a year old and was hospitalized for 6 days. Caleb was a very sick child although it seemed to be innocently (colds, flu, tummy aches, throwing up randomly) I never believed he had more than just bad luck.

At age 3, he started tripping and falling all the time. I took him to the doctor and they would tell me he just didn't pay attention. Caleb also always had constipation. I mean big and hard. The doctor gave him some miralax and sent us on our way. When Caleb was 5, he broke out real bad with his yearly spots, so again we found ourselves at the doctors, they then sent Caleb to a dermatologist who ran some allergic reactions blood work and stated his immune system was a little low but not too abnormal for a kid his age. She sent us back to our doctor and said "when he breaks out again call me and I'll look at them". YEAH RIGHT!!!

Caleb seemed to be growing up although he was weirdly proportioned. He was real skinny everywhere except he had a pot belly. His dad is skinny so I just assumed that's why. June 22, 2008 Caleb came to me and stated his tummy hurt real bad. We were at VBS so I took him straight to the hospital. They told me in the triage room they just had a kid yesterday that just had constipation. They took an x-ray, said he needed a stool softener, and sent us on our way. The next day we went to Caleb's doctor and she agreed with the ER. Then the back pain started. I took Caleb to the doctor and ER, 13 times from June 22 to September 15. The doctor's last words to me was he was eating out to much and needed a routine. I was made to feel like a hypochondriac.

On September 24, 2008, I passed at the doctor's office and decided to make an appointment for Caleb. The first visit, the doctor ran blood, stool, and urine. Then we went back October 10, 2008 and he was running a fever for 3 straight days. The doctor ordered a CT and when the lady finished she said "I'm calling the doctor now and you need to go back there and wait for the results". My husband was freaking but I didn't know what the big deal was about. They told us it was possibly Neuroblastoma and an enlarged adrenal gland. It didn't sound so bad to me. They never said cancer. I hit my knees and asked for guidance. I had no idea what laid ahead of us all.

The next morning, Caleb awoke with more fevers and chest pain. I called the answering service and got a doctor 70 miles away. He told me to take Caleb to Jacksonville now. I thought he was exaggerating also. We loaded the car for an overnight stay and off we were. When we got to the hospital, they took us right back and started running all these tests. We were moved upstairs and over the course of 2 days we were told he had Cancer.

Seven tumors to be exact, 1 in his chest, 3 in his tummy, and 3 in his spine. I really wasn't sure because I didn't know anyone with it. I thought it was fixable with an antibiotic. Boy was I wrong. Caleb has had 6 rounds of chemo, tons of tests, biopsy with resection of a man's sized fist and right adrenal gland, 2 bone marrow transplants, radiation to come, and some kind of antibody something another. We haven't gotten that far. We are taking things one step at a time. Caleb's spirits are still keeping us going as he states all the time, if something were to happen to him, he would go to Heaven and play with the friends he has lost down here. This is Caleb's journey, and with God's will it will just get bigger and better.

(Story and Interests were last updated July, 2009)