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The Max of A Million Dreams Foundation directors, Tracey & David Buelow, know first-hand the heart wrenching and terrifying experience of being told your child has cancer. They lived it not once, but twice…
At the age of 4, their oldest daughter, Emily, was diagnosed with Leukemia. For two years, Emily endured chemotherapy and its host of life-threatening side effects. Emily remained healthy for a year following her initial treatment, but suffered a relapse and had to have a bone marrow transplant. The transplant process was long and grueling and required Emily to be hospitalized in isolation for more than three months. When Emily was finally recovered enough to go home, she was tutored all summer long and did physical therapy to rehabilitate her weakened body. She worked hard and was able to begin third grade with the rest of her class. Emily’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous; however, the Buelows were to receive more devastating news. Exactly one year after Emily’s discharge from the hospital, their seven year old son, Max, was diagnosed with a rare, solid-tumor, bone cancer, Ewings Sarcoma. As Emily’s recovery continued, Max began his cancer treatment. He had surgery to remove the affected rib bone, and started a one year regime of chemotherapy. Max’s body was strong and responded well to the medicine, but because of his compromised immune system, he was unable to return to school. He completed both second and most of third grade at home. When Max could finally go back to school for his forth grade year he was healthy and strong. In his fifth grade year however, Max began to experience pain in his right leg. The doctor’s discovered that Max’s cancer had returned. It was wide spread and no longer operable. They started Max on more chemotherapy and prepared him to receive a bone marrow transplant using his own stem cells. Max was hospitalized and isolated for six weeks for his bone marrow transplant. Although initially he responded well, it did not take long for the Ewings sarcoma to return. The Buelows were told that Max had a massive tumor which had invaded his spinal column in his neck. The doctors wanted to perform emergency surgery to remove it, but told David and Tracey that it would only save Max’s mobility, not his life. The diagnosis was grave. The doctors predicted that Max would survive for only two to four weeks. Max’s strength, courage and faith helped him to live another nine months. Emily is now a teenager and lives a happy, healthy, normal life.
Tracey and David know that while it may have been Max and Emily who had to endure the medical treatment, the entire Buelow family was impacted by their disease. Not only did they have to suffer watching their children go through the pain of their respective illnesses, they also endured long family separations, over-whelming medical debt, drifting away of family friends and social isolation. Like ripples in a pond, the cancer affected every aspect of their lives.
In the 4 years that Max battled his cancer, Tracey and David sat in countless meetings with frustrated doctors who painted a grim future. Time and time again the Buelows were told that Max’s type of bone cancer was so rare that it received very little research funding. Through the loving generosity of a close family friend, the Max of a Million Dreams Foundation for Cancer Research was established to fund research into Ewings Sarcoma and other forms of bone cancer. Primarily working with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the doctors and staff of their Bone and Soft Tissue Tumor Program, the Foundation earmarks funds specifically to research the little known and under funded pediatric bone cancer, Ewings Sarcoma. It is the Buelow family’s hope to eventually grow the Max of a Million Dreams Foundation into an organization which will be able to help fund cancer research programs at medical and research facilities nationwide.
Although any form of pediatric cancer is rare, the doctors have never been able to explain why two children in one family got two different types of cancer. For now it is believed that Emily’s leukemia and Max’s Ewings sarcoma are non-hereditary and unrelated forms of cancer. Perhaps further research into both diseases will disprove this theory. One thing is certain, unlocking doors to some of the rarer forms of cancer will prove vital for curing cancer in all its forms, both pediatric and adult. Funding research through private organizations such as the Max of a Million Dreams Foundation is an essential part of reaching this goal.
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