The Backstory

It all begins on June 5, 2008 with Johnny Jackson--the little boy in South Carolina who died of dry drowning. Jay and I both read the article, two trained lifeguards who both spent their lives in and around the water, and we had never heard of dry drowning. How scary is it that your child can walk home from the pool, go to sleep, and never wake up? I felt so sad for his Mom, she took him swimming for the first time--how exciting and happy that must that have been for him--but then he was gone.

So on Tuesday, June 10, our neighbor, Kerry, takes Bo to the pool--Pierce was at a friend's house. I'll eventually tell you more about Kerry, but without Kerry (and Kerry's whole family), I am not sure where my kids would be--she's a better disciplinarian than I am, and since she was 7 has always been there when I need her to help me out--the perfect mother's helper. And now she's HOT to boot, my boys are pretty lucky, but they don't know it yet! Anyway, that is only slightly related to the story. But it is related because at the pool there is this weird incident where the staff are working on the pool filtration system and Bo goes to the bottom of the dive pool to retrieve some dive sticks. The jets restart just as he makes it to the ladder, where Kerry is sitting, to get out. Huge bubbles of air, and probably chlorine gas that backed up in the system emerge from the pool to about two feet just as BO takes a breath. Only Kerry and Bo saw the bubbles. Kerry said she was not sure why the guard didn't see them since Bo was the only one in the pool, but I figured it was because Bo was not in any danger, and he was probably watching Kerry! After 15 minutes of coughing and sputtering, Kerry called me, and I called back to the pool to have Julie check on him. Julie is one of the club managers and someone who also has known Bo his whole life--she may have changed more of his diapers than I did, but that's another story for another day, also! Julie said he was fine (and he really was), but he was still having a hard time breathing, and not having very much fun, so Kerry brought him back to my store.

Dry drowning still in the back of my mind, watching my kid cough and sputter, throat burning from the chlorine gas, but I know that chlorine is not dangerous in a situation like that, I do what any respectable overprotective Mom with good health insurance would do--get ready to take him to the doctor! But our doctor is on vacation, so I call Jay, and like any self-respecting overprotective Dad with a heightened sense of danger from all those crazy movies guys like to watch tells me to take him to the ER at University because they have a trauma unit! Seriously I said, he is walking and talking, we don't need a trauma unit. And we ALWAYS go to Boone, we are regulars, we know the nurses, a few of the doctors--our old family doctor even works there sometimes, and because of many incidents surrounding Bo's birth, I was determined never to go back to University Hospital, but I set out, anyway. When I get there, though, there is all this construction and I don't even know where the ER is, so I go to Urgent Care, I know where that is--because kids ALWAYS get ear infections on Friday night! Just as I walk in, Jay calls me and says he is at the ER and where am I? After a short negative exchange, with me thinking "gosh, it's like he called in the Army, and now Bo seems totally fine--" you know how that goes, as soon as you get to the doctor the symptoms disappear... Well we turn around, find the ER, run into some friends on the way in--small towns are like that, and I was way more worried about Judy than Bo at this point, but we get checked, anyway, and there is no one else waiting so we don't even need to wait. How crazy is that, no waiting in the ER? If we had had to wait, even 15 minutes, I am sure Jay and I both would have decided he didn't need to be there.

The doctor checked him out, said he was fine, explained dry drowning and what to look for (this really needs to be a part of lifeguard training, and even general CPR, it only takes a minute to explain), and said that just to be positive, he was going to do a chest x-ray. At this point, even Jay knew he was going to be fine and I convinced him that we didn't both need to wasting time (remember, I am not in favor of wasting time!) so he should go back to work. We waited a LONG time for the x-ray results, and when the ER doctor came back into the exam room, he asked me if Bo had pneumonia recently, what? Outside the fateful flu incident, Bo has NEVER been sick. But the doctor said there was an unusual spot on his lung so he called for a consult and that was what was taking so long. The consulting doctor wanted a CAT scan, so three more hours after I sent Jay home, we were sent away knowing that we would be contacted by a whole bevy of doctors in the next couple days.

And we were, and we met, and at first, I think we all believed it was nothing-- inflammatory pseudotumor was the most likely diagnosis. At one point, Dr. Gruner, the oncologist said that given Bo's presentation as a healthy young man, she did not believe there was a probability she would be seeing us again. She left the door open for the fact that there are VERY rare conditions that might bring us back to her, but we left the hospital that day feeling pretty good. More tests, lots of tests, and a needle biopsy on Monday the 16th were leading in the direction that things were not so good--it was not nothing, as we had hoped... But more tests indicated it was not as horrible as it could be, either... Surgery to remove he tumor was scheduled for Tuesday, June 24th. And now, here we are, with a diagnosis of pleuropulmonary blastoma, a very rare, and life threatening, childhood cancer.

That's the backstory, and I gave you all the details for a reason. I told Bo, and I believe, though I am not an overly religious person, there is a god, some higher power that controls our destiny. I believe that god is more likely to be found in physics than in the Bible, but that is neither here nor there. Everything happens for a reason, every little thing we do EVERY single day impacts the lives of others in ways so profound we can never know, but it's all important, and there are no coincidences. But look at what happened:

1. In giving his, little Johnny Jackson saved Bo's life. Most PPB cases are not diagnosed until they are beyond treatment--it is probably safe to say there have been less than a dozen cases like Bo's--EVER. But we would never know if not for Johnny Jackson.

2. How in the world did Bo find himself in the middle of the freakiest of freak accidents that would lead to a chest x-ray?

3. Why did Jay insist we go to University where despite the bureaucratic nightmares and OCCASIONAL bad doctors, like the one we had for Bo's delivery, we have a great medical team? Boone, as great as it is, would probably have sent us to University, but the time lost would have been greater...

4. How is it possible that we have come to know, only in the past three months of baseball, Mike--a 30-year survivor of a very related childhood sarcoma? This is someone to whom Bo can look for inspiration and guidance--people do make it through, grow up, have important careers and great families.

And there are so many more that will be revealed as the story unfolds. I told Bo, and I told Mike, that god only picks really special people to take on the biggest challenges, and it is always for a reason. Johnny Jackson and Mike have already played a major role in our lives, and our journey will impact others too, in ways we will never know, and some that will take a lifetime to uncover.

But, oops, my time is up again, counselor, I have my next appointment, then we can finish the story. With love, Lisa