Treatment 15

We are halfway through with radiation. Yay! And pretty soon, all of our therapy appointments should be ending and we will get back to a normal life--I hope. Therapy appointments (speech, occupation, and physical) all go for about three months outpatient. Then they will re-assess and see if Emma still needs to be under their care. Hopefully they will send us home and we can resume school, dance class, and the things she loves very soon.

Gilberto

This morning we went to radiation as usual. Emma is the first pediatric appointment of the day. It seemed a pretty normal morning. Then they wheeled in Gilberto.

Gilberto was a normal 14-year-old, 9th grader until he was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. He has undergone surgery to remove the tumor, as evidenced by his scar over his right ear. I believe he has 30 treatments of radiation as well. He's such a sweet kid; always with a smile ready to greet you. But this day he wasn't smiling. He was reclined in the wheelchair they brought him in on, eyes rolled back, seizing.

I was sitting on the waiting room chair and turned to greet Gilberto and his mom when I heard the doors open. I didn't panic when I saw him in a seizure. Neither did she. Apparently, this type of thing happens to Gilberto all the time. The nurses ran in and brought him to the back to stop the seizing. The whole event lasted about two minutes. We later found out that he was taken back to Texas Children's ER in an ambulance.

I froze when I saw him. What was I supposed to do? The nurses stepped in the minute he came through the door. There was nothing I could do. I just sat in my chair and lost it. I silently started to cry, wondering what would happen to him. Would he survive this? Would the seizures eventually happen to Emma too? It was such a heavy thing to handle.

Gilberto is Mike's favorite patient. Mike always shakes his hand when we see him. Apparently, they have a little bond and crack jokes with each other. Mike was sitting next to me when he was wheeled in. He was just as shaken by Gilberto's condition.

Mike drives his truck daily to Methodist and has vowed to be there everyday for Emma when she wakes up. This way, we have two cars and he can go to work after radiation is over. So when Emma woke up and it was time to go, we split up as usual. I took Emma home to rest and he went to work. But he didn't. I later found out that he wanted to be there for Gilberto's mom. So he sat in the emergency room waiting for word of Gilberto's condition and looking for his mom to give her some support. He waited for two hours with no word until work had become too busy and he left. When I spoke to him about it he said he "didn't want her to be alone." We've never seen Gilberto's dad and don't know of his whereabouts. Come to find out that Mike waited at the Methodist ER and not at Children's. But the attempt was admirable nonetheless. We pray for Gilberto everyday.