Grant Wagoner is already a cancer survivor - at age four
By Mandy Bourgeois | Published Sunday, October 5, 2008
"You have to work hard to get your brain tumor," Grant Wagoner said, turning his back so that the sunlight streaming through the kitchen windows highlighted the scar on the back of his bald head.
His parents, Kirk and Meredith Wagoner of Boyd, smiled, noting the 4-year-old has worked very hard over the last five months to assure that his brain tumor does not come back. In fact, after going through surgeries, radiation treatment and now chemotherapy, he has begun to take on the character of the men and women in uniform that he idolizes - he has been a soldier.
"He knows he has cancer, we told him that," Meredith said. "We told him that he has to get treatment to make sure he doesn't get more cancer. We called the radiation treatment 'laser beams,' so he thought he was getting some sort of superhero treatment."
Your child has cancer
No parent wants to hear those words, but Kirk and Meredith have. Fortunately for Grant and his family, Meredith noticed that something was wrong with her son early.
"On Easter Sunday, he told me he had a headache. And then, every other day, he would say his head hurt," she said, adding that the headaches were quick, lasting only 15 to 20 minutes. "After about three weeks of symptoms, we took him to see the doctor."
Meredith and Kirk went to Grant's pediatrician, Dr. Amanda Lovette in Decatur, and Lovette ordered an MRI for April 15 at Wise Regional Health Center.
"After the MRI, they handed us a disk and told us we needed to go talk to Dr. Lovette," Meredith said. "They didn't say anything else. I knew then that something was wrong."
Lovette told the couple that Grant had a tumor on his cerebellum that was most likely cancerous.
"I cried," Meredith said. "I was jut shocked. I had a hard time believing it because he was a perfectly healthy 3-year-old boy and now he had a brain tumor. It was shock and disbelief all rolled up into one."
Grant was admitted to Cook Children's Hospital the next day for another MRI and was scheduled for surgery to remove the tumor on April 17.
"It was rapid - it all happened very quickly," Meredith said.
Kirk and Meredith were warned that the surgery to remove the golfball-sized tumor was very dangerous. Neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Roberts and oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Murray spoke with the couple at length, saying that the surgery would last several hours. The doctors were also unsure whether the tumor was growing on the brain stem or next to it. If the tumor was on the brain stem, it would pose several additional dangers to Grant's health.
"They told us that when he woke up he could be deaf in his right ear," Meredith said. "They prepared us for paralysis and things like that."
The surgery began at about 8 a.m. on April 17, and while surgeons worked to remove the tumor, Meredith and Kirk sat in the waiting room. As if they weren't under enough stress, severe storms moved through Fort Worth later in the day and the city was under a tornado warning during a portion of the surgery.
"That doctor stood there in the middle of a tornado and did this surgery," Kirk said.
"The sirens were going off and we had to move out of the waiting room," Meredith said. "It was very nerve-racking. We had one son on the operating table and one son at home in the shelter."
"We were very lucky that it was only pushing on the brain stem, and they were able to remove all of it," Meredith said. "It was very tedious and time consuming. They had to take the tumor off a bunch of nerves that are no bigger than a hair."
After a 12-hour surgery, Grant was moved into ICU and Meredith and Kirk were allowed to see him.
"She was running down the hall like a track star," Kirk said, laughing. "I couldn't keep up with her."
When they reached the room, they had no idea what to expect, but they definitely didn't expect Grant to speak.
"I had been carrying this toy tractor around with me all day," Kirk said. "When I got into the room I showed it to Grant and he said, 'No Daddy, that's the wrong one.'
"Those are the most wonderful words I've ever heard."
Battling cancer
Grant recuperated quickly. He was walking again in a few days, but he was somewhat hindered by his failure to understand the concept of "taking it slow." He worked overtime during physical therapy and always tried to do more than his body would allow. On April 25 he was back home. By then, Grant had been diagnosed with desmoplastic nodular medulloblastoma, an aggressive and quick-growing cancer found in children, and Kirk and Meredith were weighing the treatment options.
On one hand, they could stay at Cook Children's and go through traditional radiation treatment and then a chemotherpy regimen, an option that would have Grant in and out of the hospital for at least a year.
Then the Wagoners discovered a proton therapy radiation. Along with this type of radiation, Grant would go through a regimen of high-dose chemotherapy. This option would last about 30 weeks.
"Proton radiation offers less side effects than X-ray beam radiation," Meredith said. "It could save his eyesight and hearing."
However, the therapy was not available anywhere in the Metroplex, so Kirk and Meredith decided to relocate Grant to the Proton Therapy Center, affiliated with M.D. Anderson, and the Texas Children's Hospital for chemotherapy, both in Houston.
During May and June, Grant endured 30 radiation treatments, along with multiple tests and procedures. He, his mother and brother, Griffin, 1, moved into Kirk's aunt's home in Pearland to be close to the hospitals. He also celebrated his fourth birthday during this time.
"We're very fortunate that we have family and friends in Houston," Meredith said, with Kirk adding, "My aunt has basically given up her house."
While the rest of the family was in Houston, Kirk stayed in Boyd during the week, going to work at Devon. On the weekends and during important procedures, he visited Houston.
"I don't like to come home when they're gone," Kirk said. "It's too quiet."
Grant's radiation treatment ended June 23, and the next day the whole family was at home in Boyd for a month of rest before heading back to Houston to begin chemotherapy. Grant began chemotherapy on Aug. 8 and the family returned to their schedule of having Kirk visit on the weekends.
When the time came for Grant's second chemotherapy cycle, there was a storm lurking in the Gulf of Mexico that threatened to postpone his treatment. Ike was heading for the Texas coast. On Thursday, Sept. 11, Grant, Kirk and Meredith were admitted into Texas Children's Hospital in Houston's medical district, with Ike just a day from landfall.
"To us, it was more important for him to have his treatment than to run," Kirk said.
Friday night and Saturday morning, as Ike began to move over Houston and wind speeds increased, patients and guardians were moved into the hallway and away from the windows.
"We spent 14 hours in the hallway during the hurricane," Meredith said, saying that the hospital staff was worried about windows breaking in patients' rooms.
The family stayed in the hospital through Sept. 16. The hospital promised food only to patients and Kirk and Meredith got by on leftovers and MREs.
When Grant was released from the hospital, Kirk and Meredith decided to come home while the city recovered from the hurricane.
"The doctors were very worried about the health risks of staying in Houston," Kirk said.
For the family, the unexpected time at home was a relief. But, the vacation was quick, and the family returned to Houston Friday. Grant will continue his chemotherapy treatments until Thanksgiving, then he is expected to be in the hospital until just before Christmas.
To date, Grant's doctors have said there is an 80 percent chance he will never have this cancer again. As of now, he is cancer free.
Reasons to be positive
"Anytime I want to complain, I think of him," Kirk said. "There's nothing to complain about."
Kirk and Meredith agree that Grant has taken the entire experience with the heart of a soldier. He has experienced procedures, emotions and pain that no child should have to. Over the last six months he has endured brain surgery, lumbar punctures, a spinal tap, stem cell harvests and transplants, blood and platelet transfusions, days and nights of severe nausea, fevers, surgeries to place and remove a port and a surgery to place his central lines, where he receives his medications and chemotherapy.
"He asked me, 'what's a tumor,' and I explained it to him," Meredith said. "He's been very resilient and has been going with the flow. He's getting used to it, I guess."
"He's not scared to go to the doctor," Kirk said. "He's learned to enjoy himself at the hospital."
Grant has even taken over some of the procedures. If doctors or nurses are going to put something through his central lines, he likes to push the button that pushes the medicine through the tubes. He's even helped give himself anesthesia.
Even when he began losing his hair, Grant took it in stride. He looked forward to giving Kirk a "soldier cut" with the clippers. Afterward, Kirk buzzed Grant's hair, and Grant immediately felt like a soldier. A few more men in the family also received "soldier cuts."
"He's going through it with flying colors," Kirk said. "His mother is a rock and children feed off of their parents' emotions. From the very beginning it's been smiles. And we've always been upfront with him about everything."
But Kirk and Meredith are not without emotion. They've had many friends and family die from cancer. But with Grant, they're confident the cancer will be defeated.
"For me, personally, if I had the choice, I would hide in the closet and cry all day," Meredith said. "But I don't have that choice. I don't want to worry him more than I have to. I feel like as long as I get up and have a smile on my face, he's not going to be worried about it.
"We don't cry in front of him. I have to take care of him. We do what we have to do to save our child. When he goes to bed at night, if we need to break down, that's when we do it."
"I've had a lot of family members die from cancer. I've never heard of a happy ending," Kirk said. "But we feel very confident that we're at the top of the chart. We've had a lot of reasons to stay positive."
Some of those reasons include family, friends and community. Since the day Kirk and Meredith found out Grant had a brain tumor, they have been surrounded with love they had never known. Friends and family have offered to babysit, given donations and have offered a shoulder to cry on. And the community has given more than the Wagoners could ever expect.
"They've stepped up and have been like family," Kirk said of the community. "Total strangers act like family."
The staff at the Decatur Church of Christ's Mother's Day Out program spread the word to other parents and church members, and quickly, an entire community was sending cards, food and prayers to the Wagoners.
"Lots of parents have been helpful, and they've donated money and sent cards. It's hard to know where everything is coming from," Meredith said. "It's just amazing. People we've never met just have tried to help us as much as they can."
The family moved from Lytle, near San Antonio, about two years ago, and have the support of friends and family there as well. A golf tournament organized by friends raised money to help pay for plane tickets, gas and bills. The family had enough left over to start a fund for Grant's education, should he need supplemental education due to the effects of the radiation.
With so many members of their family, friends and the community to thank, the Wagoners realize they could never make a complete list of all those who have helped them through this experience.
"Our family and friends have been unreal," Kirk said.
They just ask for continued support through the remainder of Grant's therapy.
"Something made us move here," Kirk said. "When the dust settles, we can say we did the best for him that we could."
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