09/13/2025
Today is September 13th, 2025.
What if at 3:00 pm today, in the middle of a totally normal day, the universe said, How's it been going? Okay? Life is rocking right along according to plan?
Cool. I'm going to change everything. Forever. Right now.
Because the universe does that sometimes. And ours happened on September 13, 2021. I don't know if I will continue to tell the story every year, but I'm going to tell it this year.
We sat in a tiny consultation room just outside the ER in the middle of the night at Children's in Dallas while Dr. Ksenya and Dr. Warne, who we were so incredibly fortunate were on-call that night, told us our super healthy 9 year old who had only ever been to the doctor for Well Child visits had developed explosive, acute leukemia that was trying to kill him.
His little body had, over a matter of weeks, developed a 4"x6" mass that had wrapped around his heart and was crowding out his right lung, and was compressing his windpipe. It was literally choking him out. And it had begun to take away his ability to breathe in a matter of HOURS.
This week I thought it might be interesting to let ChatGPT read the CT scans and create an image based on that information and this is what it gave me. It's mostly in the ballpark, and I filled in where the mass was larger on the right side. It's also missing some fluid that was also on his right lung.
For reference, that big yellow thing in the photo is not supposed to be there. I will never forget the doc in the ER in Plano where we were initially sent, letting me see the scan. She saw that mass in his chest, pointed at the screen, and looked at me and said in disbelief, "WHAT IS THAT?" That's a surreal moment, I promise you.
ChatGPT also gave me the highlights of the findings of the scans. And as he had blood cancer, it was evident it was all throughout his body.
I'll never forget uncontrollably crying for hours that night while the doctors so compassionately and expertly explained that Cash had cancer and drew diagrams for us to show how leukemia works and told us what to expect over the next THREE YEARS.
Even in the fog of such trauma, Dr. Warne told us this cancer could be cured. And those words were such tangible hope in such a devastating moment.
And he was right.
He's 13 now, and I could NOT conceive of this in September 2021, but this kiddo was on the football field 3 nights ago on the offensive line. Fit as a fiddle four years later.
It was a tough road for all of us. But I'm so incredibly proud of Cash and his resilience and determination and persistence. This is a kid who fights through it. This is a kid who can do hard things. This is a kid who made a come back and is in NJHS, band, choir, basketball, and football. He's a great friend. He's compassionate, thoughtful, and hilarious. He's curious and crazy motivated. We are so incredibly proud of him and can't wait to see what the next many, many Septembers hold.
