Martha's Story: A Son with Cancer (English Translation of a Spanish Language recording)

Recorded August 27, 2002

Listen With 12 minutes, 15 seconds. (Audio is in Spanish)

My name is Martha. My son is Daniel. My son was sick with cancer. He had a tumor, or he still may have it, but I think that the tumor is cured now. This I hope.

Testing Reveals Cancer

He was diagnosed the first time on the 14th of May, 2001. It was then that I realized that he had a tumor in the right side of his face, the sinus area. It was a large tumor. When I took him [to the hospital] that day, I did not know that. I only took him because he was bleeding from the nose, and because I believe that part of the tumor was coming out of his nose. All of the doctors thought that it was something like a blood clot, but they couldn't get it out, and that was when they had to take an X-ray. They realized that he had a mass on that side of his face.

Afterwards, there was a two-week hospital stay. That was when they started all of the tests. They did tests on his bone marrow; they did tests on his bones, in case he had cancer in those parts of his body. Thank God, he did not have cancer anywhere else. Also at that time they did a study of his--they put something in his nose. They cleaned everything out, they took out tissue, they examined it, and they saw that it was really a malignant tumor. It was very difficult when they told me that the boy did, in fact, have cancer.

And this took two weeks, so the doctor would know what type of treatment he could administer. The boy was sicker each time. The tumor, I think, was growing, because his eye was bulging--his right eye was bulging. For that reason, he does not see through his right eye, because the optic nerve was engulfed by the tumor, and later because of the radiation that they did on him.

Enduring Tough Treatment

He started with treatment two weeks after I first took him. He started with treatment more or less around the end of May. When he began the radiation and chemotherapy, I truly believed that my son would not survive, because he was so, so, so sick. I saw him very sick. He acted like he was crazy because the tumor was touching part of his brain. It was already by his brain.

I believe that I was late--I was late in taking him. I did not realize, and I did not take him immediately after the first symptoms. For that reason, it is important that when a child complains of pain, of headaches or of some pain that we the parents perceive as something strange, we need to run immediately to take him or her for a checkup so that it will not become too late.

Fortunately, I believe that it wasn't too late, because my son lives, thank God. He lives, and I hope that he lives for many more years. Well, what can I say? After the first chemo, I believed instead of providing relief, I believed that my son would truly die because of the chemo. When they told me all of the effects of the chemotherapy and of the radiation, I said that my son would not be able to withstand it, because I saw him feeling so bad. I thought he would not be able to handle it.

It wasn't like that. After the first chemo, it looked like he was revived. He felt better. It was only when they gave him the 28 radiation treatments--at first it was tolerable. But by the end of the radiation, he was worn out; he was in a bad mood due to the anesthesia that they gave him daily. But his improvement in terms of the sickness, yes, yes, it was noticeable--not how I would have liked it, because like I say, because of what they administered to give him the radiation. He felt really bad- -many sores broke out below his tongue, in his mouth, and he could not eat well.

The Great Care of Parents

That is where the great care of the parents enters, by not letting the boy just say, "I want to do and eat only certain things." We the parents must insist, insist, insist on giving them the best that we know to combat, to help their health. It is really important that he eats well, that he drinks tonics, things, foods that are natural and very healthy, that he doesn't eat greasy fast food.

And what I saw in my son as a result of my persistence, in making him always eat things, for example, when he was constipated due to the chemotherapy--I didn't give him medicine that--so that he could go to the bathroom. Instead what I did is I gave him natural things like papaya, like lots of juices, natural juices made by me, like [juice] of beets, carrots or vegetables--things that were blended, liquids, so it wouldn't bother his mouth, but he would be strong so he could continue receiving his treatments.

Well, that is what I advise the most to people who have sick children like this and to adults: that they take great care in what they eat. Besides that, I can say thank God that the treatment, even though it was difficult and it was very hard, he was able to survive it very well.

And so many side effects like I could see in other kids and in other people who had very, very hard side effects-- he did not have difficult side effects. In the end, yes, he had more problems. He got sick a lot--he got a cough in his respiratory system, he caught the flu and [had] other problems, but I know that it was a consequence of his body being so tired from receiving the treatments. When he was already seven or eight months into the treatment, because he received the treatment for one year--one year of treatment with chemo. After eight months was when I noticed that he began to get sick more often. He got fevers, he had really high temperatures.

It is important to go to the hospital and to take them so that the doctor can take care of them, because they don't have any defense. The white blood cells are nonexistent due to the chemo. It is important to follow the doctor's instructions, but also we the parents can do so much for our children, taking care of them. And like I said, taking great care in what they eat. Also, it is very important to give them confidence, to give them love, to be with them always, to not leave them alone when they go to the hospital--to never leave them alone in the hospital, always accompany them.

My son, after the first treatments of chemo and of radiation like at three months, he was sick. I think that it was because of the effects of the radiation. That is what the doctor told me. The first treatments and the last treatment--but in the middle of his treatments, he was tolerating it very well, and he lived his life normally-- almost normally.

He always played with his little brothers. He was always able to ride bicycles. He could play normally; he could go out--even when it was cold, he could go out, and he was well; he did not get sick. That gave me much--it gave me much hope. And I felt good, good about myself, because I knew that I was helping him so that he could feel better. And that is what helped him so much--also having a normal life so that he could feel good and so that he wouldn't get depressed. Because even though they are kids, they get depressed when they feel different--because they don't have hair, or because they just simply feel bad, they feel weak.

It is very difficult to know that someone, like a mom or a dad, who has a child like this, because the doctors can't say if they will be cured or not. They are always preoccupied with knowing whether my son is really going to live or is not going to live. But it is encouraging when one sees that the boy can play, the boy is alert.

My son didn't go to school--he lost that year. He will now enter school this year. I opted to not send him to school in order to take care of him more carefully.

And Life Continues

Well, now he is living a normal life. He finished his treatments in April--April 18th he finished his chemo treatments. He continues to be under observation. More or less two weeks after the last chemo, they did his MRI. After a month and a half he returned for another MRI. But the doctor says that the tumor is the same; it isn't growing or anything. He doesn't see a single change. So the doctor says that is good news.

Now he has an appointment in September to do another MRI, to keep checking that the tumor doesn't show any growth, that there is no change, because then the doctor thinks that if the tumor shows any change, he will have to operate. I hope not. I see that my son is better--only, he is a little more irritable. But he hasn't complained again that his head hurts, not even that anything hurts. So that gives me so much hope.

And I wanted to tell someone, anyone interested who may listen to this recording and who wants to talk to me, I will gladly share anything that can help or whatever information that could be useful in regards to taking care of children with cancer. I can help, if necessary.

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