Meet Jude
Jude is an almost 12 year old boy from Summit, MS.
Jude is the youngest child of Michelle and Brian. He has three big sisters, Emma, Caroline, and Maggie. He is a lover of all things Marvel, Legos, fishing, arts and crafts, and is Lucille Ball’s biggest fan! An old soul with a warrior spirit.
Jude’s Story…
On Wednesday, October 18, 2018, Jude’s family walked into Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting as they always did. When they got out of the car, however, their son and youngest child, Jude, complained of not feeling well. When you have a family of four children, however, this does not immediately raise any red flags. You get used to mysterious illnesses arriving either when it is time for school or time for church!
Jude slept through much of the hour-long prayer and Bible study time. Once they got home, they discovered he had a fever of roughly 103-degrees. As usual, they gave meds and put him to bed. The next morning, his mother, Michelle, took him to his pediatrician where they ran strep and flu tests. Both were negative. He was diagnosed with a “fever virus.”
Through the day the fever spiked and subsided as they continued to administer medication. Jude was sleeping a lot. There is actually a picture of him asleep with a bowl of Ramen in his lap.
Together, Michelle and Brian took Jude to the ER on Friday for more tests because his fever was over 104-degrees at this point, and medicines were not working. The team took Xrays, performed a strep and flu test, and evaluated his urine. Everything was normal! So, they returned home with a sick child and no answers.
That night, Jude slept in the bed with his dad. It was a restless, fitful sleep. His dad remembers his pale face and purple eyes occasionally waking up and smiling at him.
“He smiled at me. It’s an image I cannot get out of my mind.” his dad said.
Saturday morning, the fever remained. His mom insisted, by God’s grace, that they return to the ER.
Again, by God’s grace, a doctor there decided it was time for a blood test.
As time dragged on, Brian decided to take Michelle and Jude some snacks because they had been at the hospital for so long. It was lunch time. When Brian arrived, he entered their room just before the doctor returned with the blood test results.
“Your son’s blood work does not look good,” he said.
“His platelets and white blood cells are very low,” he continued. “One of three things is wrong: He has a bad viral infection, a bad bacterial infection, or cancer.”
Cancer?! You cannot unhear those words.
Later Saturday afternoon, Jude rode, with Michelle, in an ambulance to Greenville Memorial Hospital in Greenville, SC. Brian drove behind them and sang hymns so he would not weep the entire way. When they arrived at the hospital, the staff put Jude in a pediatric intensive care room.
They did everything they could to make Jude better and lift his spirits. The nurses administered platelets and whole blood to help his blood counts improve. They also brought toys and games to keep him occupied and give him some happiness!
I have never properly appreciated the work nurses do until this experience. They were a blessing to our entire family!
On Sunday morning, Jude’s pediatric oncologist came by after having completed his lab work. After we found a quiet place to talk, his doctor informed us Jude had a form of pediatric leukemia called Pre-B ALL.
It is hard to put into words what that moment was like.
Any hope we had in the back of our minds of a reversal of what we heard at the ER was now shattered.
For a parent, hearing these words is like hearing, “Your child will die.”
One of the things you treasure most in life is going to be taken away from you. And now, every happy moment you have in life will be tainted by the thought of how much happier it would have been if you still had that child.
Jude’s doctor immediately followed the announcement of Jude’s diagnosis by telling his parents that his form of leukemia had a 90% cure rate. She did everything she could to give them hope and encouragement in what was the most horrific conversation they had ever had.
The next day, Monday, Jude was taken for surgery where they took a bone marrow sample and inserted a port under his skin. He received his first chemo treatment that afternoon.
For the next week, Jude demonstrated incredible strength.
Two of the medications Jude has received require hospital admission. Because the drugs are so dangerous, he had to receive a constant drip of fluids to ensure the drug left his system as quickly as it entered. He was not allowed to leave the hospital until urine tests showed the level of medication in his system reach a low-enough level. On top of this is the psychological trauma of coping with the constant sick feeling and questions about death.
After roughly 10 days in the hospital, Jude went home.
On November 21, 2018, he was declared to be in remission!
A remission declaration, however, does not mean the end of treatment. Sadly, for cancer has an evil way of returning. Not long after he was determined to be in remission, the doctors shared with the family that Jude has a certain chromosome which increases his chances of relapsing. This was yet another devastating moment for them in his cancer journey.
The doctors changed Jude from a “standard risk” course of treatment to a “high risk” one.
Fast forward some and Jude finished his treatment in February of 2021.
They were thrilled!!
The end of June 2023 Jude started to have some bruising. After many trips to clinic and many tests, Jude’s family found out on July 10, 2023 that Jude had relapsed.
They are now walking this journey again!
