Meet Tommy

Tommy was diagnosed in October of 2012 with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He had been feeling really tired for about 6 months, loss of appetite, weird rashes, etc. We had him to the Dr. numerous times and they thought he had mono. He was diagnosed on a Wednesday, had a PET scan the following day and went in for surgery the next day to do a bone marrow test, remove a tumor to biopsy and have a port implanted. He started chemo the following week. The day before chemo was supposed to start, his aunt passed away from cancer so it was devastating to have a loved one die and then have your child be diagnosed with the same disease within a week. Tommy was hospitalized for 3 days of intense chemo and the day after he was released, we attended his aunt’s funeral. Tommy continued through the Fall and winter with getting 4 days of chemo treatment every 21 days. On November 14, his dad was scheduled for a standard open heart surgery for a leaking mitral valve at Abbott Hospital. Tommy was at Children’s that same day getting chemo. The heart surgery went well but 3 days later, his dad had a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest in the middle of the night. He had to go back into surgery for a 2nd open heart surgery that day and then was put into a cooling process to preserve his brain. He was in a coma for a week and we had no idea if he would be ok or not. The day that he went into cardiac arrest I was told to have someone bring the kids to the hospital right away as they didn’t think he would make it. His dad was in the hospital for 26 days and then had to go to Sister Kenny for rehabilitation. During that time frame, Tommy continued to get chemo treatments and spent several days in the hospital at Children’s getting chemo treatment while his dad was hospitalized at Abbott. The 2 hospitals were connected by a tunnel system which allowed family to travel back and forth between the 2 hospitals. Tommy was a complete trooper during his chemo treatments, kept a positive attitude and attended high school even though he did not feel well. He is smart and has hard classes including a college level AP class. He managed to get a 3.85 GPA during the fall semester while going through chemo. He also had a great group of friends who helped him through this difficult time. Tommy completed his chemo treatments and had a PET scan the end of January which showed the cancer was gone so he is in remission at this time. Some of Tommy’s interests include playing COD and hanging out with friends, golf and reading. He has his 2nd degree black belt and is back to doing Tae Kwon Do now that he is done with chemo. Images by: Brandie Ann Photography