The Tumor
To feel keenly the poetry of morning’s roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness. ~Henri Frederic Amiel
A few months prior to the end of my son’s Kindergarten year, he began to wake up with pain in his legs. My first reaction was that he was going through typical growing pains. When I would hear him cry, I would get up and begin to rub his legs until he would fall back asleep. I would often fall asleep in his bed as well. During the day, I never heard him complain of pain, but each night he would wake up crying with pain again.
As this continued on, I started to take him to various doctors. We began with his Pediatrician who did a complete physical exam and his general health was fine. I took him to a Neurologist and he also had no findings to report back to me. I then took him to an Orthopedist, a young doctor who still needed to learn to listen to his patient’s concern. He suggested that my son was seeking attention and that his own small children do all sorts of things to gain attention at home. He did order some x-rays of his legs which, again, showed nothing which would cause the pain my son was experiencing.
One day, after this had been going on for a while, another mother from my son’s Kindergarten class told me of a doctor in our area who was familiar with Kinesiology. By that time, I was very frustrated with the medical community. My son was in pain every night and no one could figure out why. Almost six months had already past since either my child or I had enjoyed a good night’s sleep. Without much optimism, I made an appointment to yet another doctor.
If you are familiar with Kinesiology, you will know that the muscles are tested for strength. Any weakness might indicate a concern. Dr. Steve Clouthier, an alternative health doctor, spend a long time testing my son. He took a lot of notes and re-tested him again and again to be sure of his findings. As I sat and observed him working with my son, I was praying silently that answers would be found.
The next morning, a Saturday, my husband and I were still asleep when the telephone rang. It was Dr. Steve who told us that he had been up very late, consulting his medical books and references and double checking his findings. His recommendation was that we arrange for an immediate consultation at the Medical Center in Houston because he suspected either Leukemia or a tumor. My heart began to race. Time seemed to stand still for a moment as a million questions raced through my mind. We contacted my son’s Pediatrician right away but he was unwilling to refer us there on the weekend. He wanted to see my son himself after the weekend and so, Monday morning, we found ourselves in his office once again. His reaction, however, was simply to tell me that he considered the entire situation as a case of over-kill. I explained to him that as long as there was even just one doctor out there that felt my son might have a serious condition, those test would have to be ordered.
The first procedure was an MRI. Once the film came back, it revealed a walnut-size tumor at the base of my son’s spine. I held my son in my arms as I looked at those films and I felt such fear and uncertainty. What had invaded my son’s little body? We were sent to several more doctors and finally were referred to Dr. Marco, a wonderful Neuro and Orthopedic surgeon in Houston, who specializes in spinal surgery and who had already done many surgeries on children. Dr. Marco did a wonderful job in explaining that this was an Osteoid Osteoma, a benign tumor that is often found in children and young people’s fingers and toes. This particular tumor though, just happened to grow on our son’s lower spine and caused an increase of pain during the night time, just as our son had described all this time.
Surgery was scheduled right away. When my son was rolled back to the surgery area, he looked at us, reaching his hands toward us and crying. He wanted us to come back with him but we could not. My husband and I began to cry as well. Thankfully, the surgery was successful. The tumor was completely removed and my son and I have been sleeping through the nights ever since. Follow-up visits have shown no further re-growth and my son was tickled when Dr. Marco told him he wanted to use his tumor for lectures in his classrooms as a teaching tool for his medical students.
Our son is thriving and growing into a fine young man and each day, I am so thankful for his life. It could have been so much worse.
We are deeply grateful for finding Dr. Steve and for the time he took out to give our son such a thorough exam. We are equally grateful for Dr. Marco, and for the technology and training that made this surgery possible. I have linked Dr. Rex Marco and Dr. Steve on my blogroll to the right. If you need their services, just click on their names and it will give you their contact information.
An unknown author said, “The I in illness is isolation, and the crucial letters in wellness are we.” Perfectly expressed!
