Reflection and memories made

BJ was given 2 tickets to see the Carolina Panthers play the Saints yesterday, and even with the misting rain, we had an incredible time! Like good fans, we stayed in our seats until the very end of the game and watched our team hold on to their lead and seal the win.

So like most days, I reflect… The last time we were at a Panthers game, BJ was 12 years old, and a year into active chemotherapy treatments. That day he got to meet Steve Smith and shake Ron Rivera’s hand before the Panthers played the Steelers. That day also solidified BJ’s love for the Panthers. Fast forward through 2 more years of chemo infusions, spinal taps with injected chemo into his spinal fluid, steroids, handfuls of pills every day, missed school, hair falling out and growing again… Then this past May, BJ participated in the “Keep Pounding 5k”. He was the honored Levine Children’s Hospital’s patient of the race. He RAN the race. He finished it in 29 minutes. He felt good! Two hours after the race, BJ played an entire basketball game for our local rec league. Two weeks after the 5k, at his normal monthly oncology visit for chemo, we found out that BJ’s leukemia had relapsed. It was the worst kind of sucker punch. After 2 1/2 years of treatments and 7 more months left to go, 70% of the cells in his bone marrow were leukemia blast cells again. You can safely assume that while he ran that 5k, and then played an entire basketball game 2 hours later, leukemia was taking over 70% of his bone marrow. He never complains and he didn’t that day. He was just so happy to be running beside his best friend, running through the Panthers stadium, finishing that race, banging the crap out of that Panthers drum, and feeling like a normal 14 year old. All these reflections of events are mixed with the horrible reality of what I have watched my child endure, and what he continues to endure. I can’t even express how proud I am of him. I never set out to raise a superhero. But that is exactly what he is to me.   Treasure every moment.