05/20/2024
I won't be able to post tomorrow due to appointments for Lucas.
May 21st 2021 was a day that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Lucas fell earlier that week and hit his eye on a pool ladder. The swelling of his eye just wouldn't go down but everything else healed nice, but to make sure before we left for the weekend we would make him a doctors appointment. Mid afternoon while we got everything packed up I took Lucas to the walk in clinic. At this time we googled way more than we should have and of course got best case and worst case answers so we decided leaving it for the doctor was best.
The doctor we took him to by no means was a doctor that could tell us he had a tumor or if it was cancer but she handed me a one way ticket to the stollery children's hospital in our nearest city. She seemed sure of her answer and I was in complete denial. I listened tho. Packed Lucas a small bag and we headed to the hospital. We met a little girl in the waiting room with the same problem we had. I talked with her parents and Lucas and their daughters story almost matched. In a small way it gave me hope. As time passed both us families were placed in a room and the kids got their hard pokes and tests done. We played for hours, Lucas loved every minute of the attention. Many hours went by and as we said goodbye to the family we met in the waiting room we knew our stories were different. I was then rushed by a team of strong doctors and some crying nurses that told me my baby had a tumor on the upper left of his brain. Now what that news does to a parents brain is unimaginable. Everything for months is a slow motion movie. You physically live around everyone but you are not really there.
3 years has now past and we have so many gains and so so many losses. When you step into this journey there is no book. You no longer know any future you have from then on. You live minute by minute because you will always be on the run and not knowing what will happen next. Today as we still go to 3 month appointments my body remembers things my brain wants to forget.
Today Lucas is at the end of his kindergarten journey! All the chemo and radiation Lucas got there was some side effects we had to wait for as he grew. As we are the end of the year we are happy to announce there is nothing stopping him. He loves school and is needing little to no assistance. The experience of Lucas journey has shaped him in such a positive way. He loves hospital visits and still strives to one day be a sleepy doctor. We don't ever want Lucas to be his cancer but we know his cancer made him who he is today and I know he will do big things in life !
We still as a family have alot of catching up on our lost years, years we will never get back to the way we pictured it but it's our story and we are thankful everyday we still get to write it.
