Childhood Cancer Warrior: Ander
As told by his dad, Johnathan
Ander is an amazing kid, I know I might be a little biased, but after all, I’ve known him all of his life. He’s smart, receptive, helpful, and effortlessly kind. He goes out of his way to make sure everyone around him is comfortable and accounted for. He shows unwavering love and care for his 3 younger brothers, which I know can be a challenge.
He was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma at 16 years old in January of 2023 after a few months of doctor’s visits, and multiple sets of imaging to find the source of pain and numbness in his arm. When he was younger, he had two radial fractures in his upper arm due to an abnormality – a cyst – in his bone in that area. Naturally, his doctors focused their attention there. Fortunately, the amazing staff and ER doctors at Texas Children’s Pediatrics determined he may be suffering from a compression of his spine or rib and suggested an imaging set of his neck and spine. On January, 6th, 2023, he woke up with complete numbness on his body from the neck down. Prompting us to rush him to the emergency room at Texas Children’s Hospital’s main campus in the medical center. After a long day in the ER, Ander‘s Mom, Lauren, and I were called into the scariest room I’ve ever been in, in my entire life, to be told that there is a mass in Ander‘s chest and that they believe it’s cancer. I felt my world collapse, my little boy, the baby that I, a scared 22-year-old kid brought home and poured my whole life into was facing a life-threatening illness, and there was nothing I could do to change it. I sat in that room with Lauren and held her. I told her things I wanted to believe at the time, that “it was all going to be ok”, and “we just need to do what the doctors say and he’s going to recover”. Then I had to break the news to Ander. I looked this incredible young man in the eyes and told him that there is a tumor in his chest, that they were going to have to run more tests (which were very painful for him), and that it was likely cancer. I told him to be strong and that his Mom and I would do everything possible to get him through this. He was scared, most likely in shock, and worried. For himself, yes, but then almost immediately about his Mom, and how she was handling the news.
The doctors, nurses, and staff at Texas Children’s Hospital were efficient, focused and dedicated. They got him quickly on medications to reduce the swelling and hopefully, the size of the tumor pressing on his spinal cord and nerves in his neck assessed his worsening mobility issues, as well as placing a chemo port implant and starting his first round of chemo while in the ICU. Once they confirmed his diagnosis and had him stabilized, they told us they had a room for us on the Oncology floor. We might as well have been zombies at this point. The shock of this diagnosis, followed by the days and nights of constant worry and stress, left us with nothing else on our minds. When we arrived to the oncology floor, the first thing I saw as I walked in from the elevator bank was a familiar sight, the Sky High For Kid’s logo. I had worked with Brittany previously behind the scenes at their Galas and a livestream, so I was familiar with the incredible work this organization does. So was Ander. He had donated during the 2020 virtual event under the (at the time very relevant) pseudonym “Joe Exotic Durst”. Seeing that mural was the first moment that Sky High For Kids Started helping my family because it gave us something else to talk about besides the diagnosis, the imaging, the treatment etc. That night I reached out to Brittany to express my gratitude for that moment. She got the wheels moving quickly and we started receiving care packages, including a lot of amazing things. One of those things was a pair of “comfy” blankets, which if you don’t know, is a fleece-lined hooded, long sleeve sweatshirt/blanket. They became an everyday staple for him. He wore them through everything, and he went through A LOT: 14 rounds of chemo, 30 rounds of radiation, blood clots, infections, countless imaging, ICU visits, surgery, mobility issues, eating through a feeding tube as he was unable to swallow due to the damage the radiation caused.
The effects of life-threatening illnesses aren’t just felt by the patient, and they definitely weren’t just felt by Ander. The extreme and sudden change Ander‘s diagnosis brought caused challenges in our family’s lives. Between his closest younger brother Eli being the man of the house while I was away at the hospital, helping take care of his younger brothers, financial challenges, the changes to our house to accommodate Ander‘s medical needs, and the challenges and uncertainty that invaded our everyday lives, everyone felt those effects. I can’t explain to you how important and valuable feeling “normal” is. Sky High understands that. They provided experiences for all of my kids that they will remember for the rest of their lives. They helped us with groceries when the bills were out of control. They provided similar comfys for Ander‘s brothers. And provided counseling service resources when it all felt like too much. I can’t thank this organization, and all of you enough.
