Hello,Team #Joestrong! I am Joe's mom and want to start by telling you how deeply honored we are that you are all riding in honor and memory of our precious boy and raising money for a cause near and dear. Words will not be able to tell you all how much this means.
Joe's story is one that is filled with bravery and strength. Pain and tragedy. Smiles and laughs. If that makes any sense at all......
It was February 2019, my husband and oldest son had the flu. Joe was diagnosed with it last and had the most mild symptoms of all of my boys. Joe had returned to school on a Friday but started running a fever and I was called to pick him up. No problem, I thought. Probably just lingering effects of the flu. So we came home to rest. My oldest son, John, had his birthday party the next day and Joe woke up feeling good- even went on a bike ride before the party. Once we were at the party, everything started going south, fast. It was at one of those indoor trampoline/bounce house places. Joe was just falling out. He got hit in the face with a dodge ball, upset, mad.....just not our happy Joe. Fast forward to that evening....we got home. Joe was sick to his stomach and one of his eyes was extremely bloodshot. We figured it was from the dodge ball that he caught on his cheek. We decided to let things play out a little bit before calling the pediatrician. Joe slept through the night.
This is now Sunday March 3, 2019. Joe woke up the next day and both eyes were completely red with blood and I called the pediatrician immediately. We were to go at 11am. In the hours leading up to the appointment, Joe started getting a bloody nose off and on. Then I noticed what looked to be blood blisters in his mouth. A mother's instinct is not typically wrong but NO ONE could have prepared me for the next few hours.
Joe and I arrived at the pediatrician. She immediately started asking questions-had we traveled outside the country, had we been exposed to people who had, etc. She then told us to go directly to the ER and that she was calling ahead to let them know we were coming.
At that point, I am on high alert. Call my husband, David, to give him the update. Joe and I arrive and are pretty much whisked back to a room for blood work. Keep in mind, Joe has always been a healthy kid and never had blood work- so it was extremely traumatic. But, true to his brave warrior self, he got through it like a champ.
Within an hour, the ER doc came back and asked us to step into another room. Going into a small room with a doctor never end well. This is not going to be good- is all I kept hearing. And then just like that, our beautiful, seemingly normal and wonderful life crashed down like a mountain of bricks. "I'm sorry, your son has leukemia. The ambulance is coming to take you the ICU at Wolfson (our childrens hospital). Do you have questions?" WHAT.....WAIT, WHAT???? I damn near passed out and would have hit the floor had David not been standing next to me. LEUKEMIA. WTF. The first thing I said was, "we can't loose him". If only.
If you've never been in the front seat of an ambulance with the lights and sirens on, going full speed down I-95, and your child in the back,I don't recommend it. Turns out, upon arrival to the ICU, Joe was completely convinced that I drove that ambulance. This was one truth he would never find out about. I kept that secret to myself.
The next days were a whirlwind. Meeting with oncology team, surgery for a port (central line used to giving chemo, blood, etc) that was placed in his chest, bone marrow biopsies, chemotherapy, you name it and it was done.