July's Survivor Story:A Mother's Story-Josh

When someone in your family is diagnosed with cancer it affects the whole family and everyone they are loved by. My story of MM is not one actually of my own but of my 16 year old son. Josh. In October of 2011 my then 13 year old came home from school and told me that his shoulder hurt. So I took him to his doctor who said that because Josh played sports he probably just hurt himself. She told me to go home and give him some aspirin. So that's what we did and Josh didn't complain anymore. The pain went away, but looking back of course it did because we were giving him pain meds! Then on November 14th Josh came home and said his shoulder hurt so bad he couldn't even hold his book bag. His dad asked him if he was okay because he looked tired and weak. I feel like such a idiot for not noticing even after his dad said something, I still just thought he was just tired. That day we took him to an urgent care center. They did an X-ray and said they think they see a cyst. That we needed to make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. So we did we went there a couple days later. There they said we needed to go to get a MRI so we went there the day before Thanksgiving. I know this may sound crazy but even after all that I wasn't scared. It was just a cyst right? Never in a million trillion years would I ever think that my son would ever have Cancer. It happens to other people but not you. Since it was a holiday we had to wait a couple of days to go back to the docs and get the results. On Dec.1, 2011 at 3:32 p.m they told me that my son had what they thought was leukemia and that I needed to go to children's hospital is Washington, D.C. right away, they are expecting me.
I was in a daze. Both Josh and his little brother were in the room and I didn't know what to do. It was like I was in the twilight zone. During the hour car ride I still some how didn't believe it. Josh never got sick he is a little soldier! He is the oldest of 6 kids. When the house got sick with the stomach virus my Joshie was the only one that didn't get sick. They have to be wrong. The following days were crazy to say the least.No one could figure out what cancer he had. He was 13 so that is what they were looking for, childhood cancers. Everyday they would come in and tell me different cancers. ALL,AML,and Lymphoma. Then on Dec.8 more docs than I had ever seen in my life entered that small little room on the 4th floor. That room was so smushed with people you could hardly move. They said that Josh had stage 3 Multiple Myeloma. That it was everywhere,even his skull.
When they all left I broke down. I know I shouldn't have in front of Josh but I couldn't. I was 5 months pregnant and already overly emotional. My Joshie just held me tight and said, "it's okay mommy I'm gonna be alright," My hero.
The months to follow were rough,11 rounds of chemo(9 chemos),and two BMT's later (one allo, one auto stem cell transplant) my baby is cancer free!!! Almost 2 years 10/19/2014!!! Words cannot describe how blessed I am to be his momma! He wears a bracelet everyday never takes it off it says NEGU (never EVER give up) and he has done just that, and I won't either! F you cancer!

Young people are affected by Cancer too, but it is rare for someone as  young as Josh to be diagnosed with Myeloma. Research shows that less than 1% of cases are diagnosed younger than 35. We will never understand why this happens to those in that 1% bracket let alone a child. However, just remember that God will always be there with you through the good and bad. Keep your eye on him, obey him, let him direct your path, and ALWAYS believe in him. Continue to move forward Josh, keep fighting and know that your story will help someone out here! 

My interview for the kickstarter for HERSTORY local documentary

This is a link to a local documentary that I did here in Austin. This was inspired by a young woman who lost her sister to Cancer. She decided to make a documentary called "HerStory" that has a story line of a young couple and the girlfriend finds out that she has Cancer. I was just one of the few people who shared their story for this project as a kickstarter. Here is my interview.

The interview was over an hour but I knew it would be edited to 4-5 minutes. I mentioned my faith a lot in my interview, but it isn't in the edited version. So, remember that God is the ONLY one who got me through this!