The year 2016 took our family on a journey we never would have wanted to walk if we were able to look ahead.  Looking back we would change the fact that our healthiest child was diagnosed with T-All with is short for T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia but we would not change the people we met or the organizations we were introduced to through our social worker with Four Diamonds.  We are thankful for the many who have gone before us and paved the way to make this difficult journey as easy as possible for our family.

On a beautiful Monday morning, June 13, 2016 I took our 12 year old son Nate to the family doctor for a follow up appointment for a suspected case of mono that was getting worse.  Two weeks prior  Nate had come home from school on Friday with noticeably swollen glands on both sides of his neck.  We were headed into a holiday weekend so we did not see the doctor until the following Tuesday.  The doctor had labs drawn and sent us home with an antibiotic since he had been having drainage of his sinuses for almost two weeks prior.  The labs were negative for mono but his white blood count was elevated to 30,000 not terribly high but a good indication that he was fighting some kind of infection.  Sometimes the first test for mono can read negative so the doctor scheduled a follow up appointment to check on Nate.  By this time Nate did not have much energy at all and was snoring very loud at night and not sleeping properly, he just looked exhausted.  The doctor examined him and had a concerned look on his face, he brought in one of his other colleges who also examined Nate focusing on his stomach.  After their conference outside the room our doctor came into the room and said he thought it would be best if we headed directly to Hershey Medical Center Emergency Room.  (We found out later they could feel his liver was enlarged.)

After Nate’s first exam at Hershey the ER doctor in training was fairly confident he just had a really bad case of mono.  I had some doubt in the back of mind as I could not imagine our family doctor sending us to Hershey for a bad case of mono but I was praying he was right.  However, we never saw that young man again.  The results of the lab work they did at Nate’s arrival got the attention of the Oncology doctors.  His white blood count came back at over 90,000, something was going terribly wrong inside his young body.  Within minutes our world turned upside down as the oncology doctor and her staff explained to us that Nate had Leukemia and he needed to be admitted to the hospital.

As a parent when you are told your child has cancer at first you cannot believe what you are hearing.  It is hard to take in all the information they are sharing with you and it is all very overwhelming. Thankfully we were introduced to others who helped us with all the information including our social worker from Four Diamonds.  Our social work has been and will continue to be here for us as we travel this journey with our child.  At first I could not even understand why we needed a social worker or all he was handing me, food vouchers, gas vouchers and the assurance that our bills would be covered.  This was only the beginning of our relationship as he was available to help in so many ways beyond just seeing that our expenses were covered.  He introduced us to many other organizations who helped ease our journey and most importantly he introduced us to our THON family from Abington Penn State Campus.  This group of young people have become like family to us as they have reached out to Nate, his younger brother and the family in so many ways.  They are full of energy and excitement that helps during those long hospital stays and the boredom of being stuck at home due to low autoimmunity levels.  We cannot say enough kind words to express all of the ways they have been here for Nate.

We are thankful that Nate has completed his first year of treatments.  The past year has at times felt like we were taking a roller coaster ride without seatbelts or a lap bar.  God has been faithful in spite of all the highs and lows, and we have been grateful for the hundreds of people who have prayed for us this past year.  Nate has been blessed with an easy going personality and it has helped him take one day and one treatment phase at a time.  If Nate’s body continues to respond well to his treatments, October 10, 2019 will be the day he can ring the bell for completing his treatments.  We have been told that the Abington Penn State Campus THON team is one of the most dedicated, and our family doesn’t have any reason to doubt that they are the best.  We will miss the seniors who have moved on, but we look forward to seeing those who are returning again this next year, and getting to meet new team members.  The next two and a half years will not be easy, but having friends walking beside you makes the journey less difficult.

Thank you to all of THON and especially those at Abington for being our THON family.

-The Cassel Family