Personal Narrative

Kaitlyn Wallace

Mr. Neuburger

Eng. Comp. 101-132

6 September 2012

Personal Narrative

The Moment that Changed My Life

It seems like just yesterday when my mom gave me the news that would forever change my life. It all started around May 2009 when my younger brother, Zachary who was nine at the time, got sick with Mono. When you get sick with Mono, there are a list of symptoms you can get, but typically you only get three or four of the symptoms, but Zach got every symptom there is. It took everything my mom had just to keep his temperature from skyrocketing. We kept switching between Tylenol and Motrin, gave him cool baths, and tried to get him to just sweat it off. His high fever lasted for about a week, but he was still extremely lethargic.

Zach, who was normally a very energetic and athletic kid, did not want to do much of anything. He barley ate, and  it did not matter what my parents fixed him to eat, he would eat a few bites of it and be done. He lost so much weight that summer he looked like a child from a third world country and not a child who could eat as much food as he wanted. After waiting about two months for him to recover, which is the typical time period it takes for people to get back on their feet after Mono, he still was not showing any real signs of improvement so my parents took him back to the doctor. They did more tests to see if anything besides the Mono was going on and everything came back normal, and the doctor said it was just part of the Mono.

Well, a few weeks after he had gone to the doctor, Zach began to shake. Whenever he would hold his hands out straight they would shake like crazy. My mom being the worry wart she is made him a doctor appointment for the next day. The doctor immediately sent him over for an MRI. The day after his MRI the doctor called my mom while she was at work. Now my mom who has worked in the medical field most of her life knew that if the doctor is calling you the very next day after a major test that it cannot be a good thing. The doctor informed her that Zach has Craniopharyngioma, which is a type of brain tumor.

My parents say that the world stopped spinning for days after that phone call. What are you supposed to do when your child is diagnosed with a life threatening disease? They spent their days and nights doing research. My dad said, “What is the point in even going to bed when you know you are just going to lay there while your mind wanders to horrible places.”  Once the initial shock wore off, they started to think more sensical and figured out everything they had to do.

First, they had to figure out how to tell me. I cannot imagine how hard it was for my mom to tell me what was wrong with Zach. See, Zach and I don’t have your typical brother sister relationship, mainly because there are seven years between us. He is my absolute best friend and has been since the day he was born. I still remember walking into the hospital room seeing and holding him for the first time. Being a foolish seven years old, I made the mistake of telling my parents, “He’s better than Christmas.”  For the most part I still stand by that statement because not a day goes by that he doesn’t make me laugh, although there are times more often now that he’s getting mouthy that makes me want to take it back.

It was just a day or two after my fifteenth birthday when my mom told me. She called me into her room and told me she needed to talk to me about something important. I went into her room and crawled up on her bed not sure what she was about to tell me, but I knew it was horrible news not because of what she said but because of the look on her face. Her eyes were red and puffy and her nose was running. I was terrified of the news she was about to give me, I knew it was something that was going to change our lives forever. My mom is one of the strongest women I have ever known, and to see her look so helpless scared me because I knew she couldn’t change whatever was happening.  She took my hand in hers and explained to me why Zach had been having so my tests done. The doctors had found a brain tumor. My mom and I are not very emotional women, but this is one of those few moments in my life where she just held me while we cried. We cried because there was nothing we could do to protect Zach.

The second thing they had to decide was what neurologist and radiologist to take him to. This was where having a mother in the medical field can really help you out. She found a world renowned radiologist, Dr. Larry Kunn, who does a lot of work with and incredible organization called St. Jude Children’s research hospital. St. Jude is a nonprofit children’s hospital that provides the best care possible for sick children, and their main goal is to find a cure for childhood cancer. As soon as she discovered him, she hurried and called his office to make an appointment for Zach to see him. But, once she called and talked with the secretary she learned that they could not get him in to see the doctor for at least another six months.

My mom calmly hung up the phone and started devising a plan to get him in quicker. The next day she called his office again. Although this time she made up a name and pretended she was a patient and needed to speak with the nurse about her medication, knowing the secretary would put her through to a nurse. As soon as the nurse answered my mom just threw everything out there, told her all about our situation and how they said they couldn’t get him in for another six months. Once she finished the nurse was silent for a moment and told her to hold on for a moment while she went and spoke with Dr. Kunn. After being on hold for a few minutes the nurse came back and told my mom to be there in two days and he would see them. The next night we packed up and headed to Tennessee.

There were many more test and doctor appointments he had to go through to be admitted into the St. Jude program. After all the test and appointments were complete he was admitted into the program where he is still a patient today. It is crazy how one word, Craniopharyngioma, can completely change your life.