William's Story
My name is Jennifer. This story isn't about me. It's about my son. His name is
William. He is only 2 and a half years old.
In the summer of 2000 William got a little over weight and I thought it was nothing. In the fall,winter he lost the weight and I thought everything was okay until he gained the weight back this summer. Only it was worse this time.
He also gained what I thought was a bad rash. Well we took him to the emergency room. They took some urine samples,some blood work and then told me we are going to do a catscan.
After the catscan none of the doctors told me what was going on until finally I
said could some tell me what in the hell is going on? That's when one doctor
took the time to tell me well what we think your son has is a disease called
cushings. So that explained his sudden weight gain,the massive amounts of hair
and the rash which turned out to be acne.
They asked if they could take pictures of my son to put in books and magazines to help other mothers figure out what there child may have so they can get it treated right away.
The hospital we were at didn't specialize in the treating of cushings so they sent us to Childrens hospital. We were admitted overnight. They told me not to feed him for 24 hours. So at 8pm that night he got nothing else to eat or drink. Well come 11am the next morning William was getting mad. He was hungry.I went and asked the doctors when the hell is my child going to get to eat and have a drink? They said mam we don't know why they told you not to feed him or give him a drink.I was mad.It was bad enough having him in that hospital but even worse he was thirsty and starved for no reason.
That morning they ordered more catscans. William was not a happy 2 year old. The doctors didn't give me much comfort. After the catscans it was confimed. He had cushings. He also had tumors by his left kidney and some on his lymph nodes. They said they had to operate.
The doctors said there is a chance your son will not make it through surgery. I was told they were going to try to get all of the tumors out but probably wouldn't be able to. The doctors managed to get out the big chunk of the tumor to examine in pathology.
A couple days after surgery they let my son go home from the hospital. On my sons release date he fell out of his bed and hit his head on the cement floor. All because I stepped out of the doctors way so he could take out my sons central line. The doctor stood right by my son and watched him fall out.
In the time my son was admitted,my son took out his cathiter that colleted his urine, his nose to tube from the surgery and when he fell out of the bed he ripped out his central line. My son has been through hell because of this disease.
I had a doctors appointment with Williams doctors to see what pathology had to say about the tumors. I wasn't prepared for what the doctor said. This disease only effects people in ages 20 to 50 years old and even then this disease is very rare. William's doctors had only seen 3 cases like Will's and those patients did not make it. The doctor also said the tests came back and it shows your sons tumors are cancer.
He said we are going to do everything we can for your son but I am warning you now he
may not make it. So for now William and I keep going to the appointments and struggling to understand why this happened to him.
I hope this story helps to make other moms realize this could happen to your child,.I just hope it doesn't.
This is hurting my son. If these doctors tell me there is nothing else we can do for your son I won't let them hurt him anymore by letting them poke and prick him for more blood and more catscans just let my little boy die in peace. .
Let him be happy and carefree once again.