How Did You Know Your Child Has Lymphoma
Callum Harding has never stopped being a great big blood brother. He has never lost his sense of humor. And he has never stopped being a diligent educatee.
This yr, as he begins ninth course, Callum is bringing to the classroom, and to life, the maturity and focus that helped him get through the by year — the most difficult he has experienced.
Final September, as he started eighth grade, Callum'due south cervix became swollen and lumpy. It was and so pronounced that several friends at school asked what was incorrect. His parents took Callum, and so xiii, to a local doctor, who diagnosed mononucleosis.
Concerned nigh swelling
In the adjacent several weeks, Callum's parents, Tara and Michael, become increasingly concerned. They took him to Luv Javia, MD, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at The Children's Infirmary of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Afterwards examining Callum'southward cervix, Dr. Javia said he was concerned most the swelling in the lymph nodes. He wanted them to see an oncologist.
Dr. Javia fabricated a phone call, and ii days later the Hardings saw CHOP oncologists Tracey Jubelirer, Physician, and Julie Stern, Medico, and the team at the CHOP Specialty Care Center in King of Prussia, PA.
After chest X-rays and other tests, Dr. Jubelirer told the family she and Dr. Javia would recommend lymph-node biopsy. One possibility, she told them, was lymphoma, and the but way to get a definitive diagnosis of lymphoma is biopsy.
Biopsy, then diagnosis
Two days later, a Friday, Callum was admitted to CHOP for surgery. Dr. Javia removed iii lymph nodes and sent them to pathologists for evaluation. On Tuesday, Dr. Jubelier chosen the family. Information technology was November. thirteen, 2012, the day Callum was diagnosed with cancer: Hodgkin lymphoma.
Tara remembers that time as incredibly scary and confusing. But from the offset, the team at CHOP helped the family stay strong.
"You feel incredibly alone on the solar day that you get the diagnosis," Tara recalls. "Nosotros didn't understand his illness or what paths this could take us downwards.
"Callum's team stood with us the whole fashion through. They completely empathize your concerns and your tears and when you experience like your world is spiraling out of control, they're admittedly at that place to hold you," she adds.
Beginning chemo
The week afterwards Thanksgiving, Callum began chemotherapy. He received the drugs as an outpatient at CHOP King of Prussia, going through four chemotherapy cycles over five months.
It was a difficult time. Callum was not able to nourish school frequently, but kept upwardly with his schoolwork. He was admitted to CHOP's Master Edifice in Philadelphia several times for close monitoring when he became ill. Through it all, Callum maintained his sense of sense of humour, joking with the doctors, nurses and other patients.
He also stayed on-betoken as caring older brother to three siblings. "He is the caput of the children," Tara says. "He maintained that even when he was at his sickest."
Inquiring mind
And Callum's intelligence and inquisitive nature were non affected, either.
I of his chemotherapy drugs, doxorubicin, is red and causes tears and urine to plough ruby-red. Callum wondered why the drug is red. The nurses took him back to see David Dallago, PharmD, the pharmacist at King of Prussia who tailors chemotherapy doses for each patient.
Dr. Dallago explained that the drug is red considering information technology is derived from a bacterium institute in soil (streptomyces peucetius), and it is this organism that is responsible for producing the ruby-red pigment.
Callum was fascinated. Though the work of pharmacists is of utmost importance to their patients, often the ii never meet.
"He brought me into the back room where they brand the chemicals and stuff and it was but a corking experience," Callum says. "It really showed how cool it is and how much you can help someone without even seeing them or knowing who they are."
Care and support from all
Callum began stopping back to see Dr. Dallago during his visits. The pharmacist explained each drug given to him during treatment and why it is prescribed for Hodgkin lymphoma.
For Tara, the time Dr. Dallago has taken to answer Callum'south questions and encourage his interest in science exemplifies the depth of intendance the CHOP oncology squad provides.
"When nosotros were hither at CHOP as patients and family, we were given everything, every kind of support we could demand," Tara says. "My son was e'er first and foremost then we were taken care of right backside him. I came here terrified and I was supported the whole way through, just as my son was."
Remission and futurity plans
Callum'due south family volition always remember the day Dr. Stern told them he was officially in remission.
"I felt a concrete weight come off my breast so this whole future open up up for all of my family, for Callum and all of our children," Tara recalls.
For Callum, who is now xiv, the future has been informed past his experience as a cancer patient.
"At that place are actually a lot of great experiences that have come from this, like meeting new people, going to new places, like knowing more nearly hospitals and stuff like that," he says.
"It's also helped me to choose what I want to do when I get older or have a sense of what I want to do. I want to become a pharmacist when I'thou older, like Mr. Dave, who was my pharmacist."
Supporting cancer research
Callum was a Patient Ambassador for the 2013 Four Seasons Parkway Run & Walk. The almanac event raises money for the Cancer Center at CHOP.
"We don't desire to terminate giving back, not just to CHOP but to all the children who will continue coming through these doors," Callum'due south mom says. "We want them to proceed having all the faith and hope that Callum received from here."
Join their team, Cure for Cal, or make a donation.
Originally posted: September 2013
Source: https://www.chop.edu/stories/hodgkin-lymphoma-callum-s-story
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