Kevin

This is the fine young man I've referred to in previous posts. As you can see, he's come so far.

Wonderful kid, funny personality and best of all a great outlook on all that his young life has dealt him.

(Please wait a minute or so, the video takes a while to appear, but it's definitely worth seeing.)

This Time Last Week - Update

UPDATE:  Amazingly Kevin has managed to hang on.  Tomorrow they are putting a more permanent feeding tube in along with a tracheotomy.  While he is only showing signs of slight reactions, the swelling and bleeding of his brain has subsided and they are beginning to resume the radiation treatments.

His story has somehow exploded in the media.  Large article tonight in the local paper, several mentions of local and not so local papers and blogs.  Over 26k visits to his caring bridge website.  I can imagine that ourpouring of caring gives just a bit of comfort for his poor parents and siblings, not to mention the extended family.

Tomorrow night, his high school is having a benefit for him during the basketball game.  It's a fairly large school and with all the publicity, I'm sure it will be packed and they will collect quite a bit to cover the health costs and to help the parents who have not been able to leave his bedside to go to work. 

A somewhat official slogan has grown out of all this.  "You've got this Kev."  I hope it's true.  I pray it's true.

Miracles do sometimes happen.  Let's all continue to pray we get to witness one. 



Original Post::

Kevin, it appeared, was a happy healthy 15 year old, playing basketball, football and baseball for his high school team.

Tonight nearly 500 people showed up at the hospital after receiving word that he has 24 to 48 hours left.  His story was broadcast in Kentucky after the Wildcats coach showed up at the hospital earlier this week.  The caring bridge site now has over 10,000 visits.

One of my friends left this note on my fb page.  It was beautiful and I wanted to share it:

prayers going up...praying that God gives family and friends peace and comfort and that His Will be done..praying for all medical staff caring for this child...and mostly praying for this child...Heavenly Father please wrap your loving arms around this child and give him everything he needs at this time...Amen...

That says it all.  

When Super Bowl Sunday Brings Heartbreak

We were having a few family over for Super Bowl Sunday.  Not many.

My brother was to bring the pizzas, I had made snacks and we were all waiting for a great Colts win. 

The day didn't turn out the way we expected.

And the days following got even worse.

About 30 minutes before the game, Mark called and said he was waiting to see if his wife could make it home before it was time to come over.

Joetta's 15-year-old nephew is an overall athlete, a sophmore at his high school.  With just a couple odd minor symptoms in the last couple weeks, Sunday he woke up and was more or less paralyzed on one side of his body.  He couldn't walk and was slurring his speech.

They rushed him to the emergency room that morning.  Several tests were ran.  By the time Mark called me, it appeared that most of the test didn't appear as serious as the symptoms would suggest.  So Mark first came to the house and an hour later, Joetta left the hospital to come watch the rest of the game.  It was apparently just some type of inflammation and they put him on antibiotics and we were watching the results.

Ironically, Kevin was placed in the new Peyton Manning Childrens Hospital at St. Vincent, on Super Bowl weekend and Kevin is NOT a Colts fan nor a Peyton fan.  The family put posters of Peyton in the room to encourage him to rally up and get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

On Monday, word came back that it may indeed be a tumor in the brain.  They would need a biopsy to determine if it was cancer, the problem was it was located at the pons area of the brain.  They determined that  biopsy could not be performed.

Kevin's favorite coach is from KY Wildcats.  After hearing Kevin's story, Coach Calipari braved the nasty snow storm we had earlier this week and flew up to visit Kevin in the hospital.

Last night, they had a diagnosis.

Pontine Glioma. 

Researching this only brings siginificant heartache.  The "best" news is that with radiation, Kevin will respond well to radiation, recover somewhat and will have a recurrence in 5 to 9 months.  The experts and research all agree that a year is to be expected.

Due to the advancement of the tumor, they began radiation therapy last night and another this morning.   So far the response seems to be less than hopeful.  We are all praying, we all have hope. 

I sincerely want to believe there is fairness in this world.  It's just so hard to see through the fog of pain, stunned disbelief and how a happy healthy 15 year old is playing football, basketball and baseball one minute dealing with some evil deadly tumor the next.

Please, please, pray for a miracle for Kevin tonight and wish all of his family peace.