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| Joey's Page Joey's Battle Against Lymphoblastic Lymphoma updated on July 6 ,2008 |
| "And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." |
| July 6, 2008 Joey is doing fine, he decided he wanted to go to summer school to take some general classes in high school so his fall schedule will be lessoned. He will be a sophmore this year. He's getting taller now. His health is fine as his last oncologist visit was in June and his blood counts and scans came back clean. April 11, 2008 Joey is doing fine. It has been 4 1/2 years since his diagnosis. Praise the Lord! Continue to keep him in your prayers. November 30, 2007 Joey's been blessed by having osteoporosis disappear. His bone scan came back and his bone density was 'normal'. Over the past 4 months he has been back to normal and continues to work out. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. August 2, 2007 Joey contracted salmoneela [yikes] a couple weeks ago and had some awful symptons. We were very concerned about him due to his history but were relieved [in a twisted way] to hear it was food poisoning. He was hospitalized for a few days but has regained himself. Also, today he went for a dexa scan to see if he has had any reversing with his bones and severe osteoporosis. Severe osteoporosis is a -2.5 deviation, regular osteoporosis is measured -1.5 to -2.5...joey's was -3.0 last year so we're hoping it's improved. He hasn't had any more bone breaks so hopefully that is a result of him regaining bone density. His bone density issues were a result of his steroid treatments of the prior years. April 5, 2007 Joey's heart test all came back normal! Praise the Lord! It's been 16 months that he has been off chemo and in the meantime he has been running 4 miles a day and weightlifting to reduce his osteoporosis in building up his bones. This past week he came back from a cruise while on spring break with his family. The photos above are from the cruise. Continue keeping him in your prayers. Joey's Dad Feburary 5, 2007 Joey will be getting some heart test next week to see if he sustained any damage from his chemo treatments. His osteoporosis is still measured at severe -3.5 but we're hopeful he may improve in another dexa test. The good news is his xrays & blood work still reveal no sign of cancer. We are always thankful to the Lord, regardless but we are most thankful his cancer has not returned. Joey appears to have started a growth spurt and has cracked 5foot now. He's excited about a family cruise we are trying to schedule this spring. But pray for his classmate Tommy who has devloped a very aggressive cancer. December 5, 2006 It has now been 1 full year since Joey's last chemo. He has started to have a pretty good shape about him and he is now ready to start a strong workout routine at the health club. Starting next month, he will only have to see the oncologist once every two months. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. The Lord has really blessed him and us! October 5, 2006 Joey has been running and lifting to help him build calcium and bone, which is vital to his quality of life when he gets older. Hopefully, his severe osteoporosis [-3.5] will be lessoned by his weight bearing activities. If not, he will be put on an osteo drug next March. His blood counts have been fine and he seems to have hit a growth spurt. Thanks for your continued prayers. August 18, 2006 Joey's blood results from his Thursday appt looked great. His Xray was great also. It has now been over 7 months since his last chemo treatment. Thanks for your prayers, Joey's dad. BTW, he had a great time fishing for trout out in the mtns of wyoming on our family vacation this past month. He caught 9 one day including cutbows and cutthroats. He loves to fish more than just about anything. He has closed on both me and his brother John in his fishing results. He came a few fish from me and narrowly missed out on tying his brother. Quite a fisherman indeed for such a young kid. And very patient. August 14, 2006 Joey's Osteoporosis Dr. said he is not going to recommend putting Joey on Fosamax unless he suffers a second break. Until then he wants to give Joey's body one year to heal from the steroid treatment and see if he has any rebound. A new Deka test will be scheduled next year. Otherwise, Joey is fine, growing up. He's scheduled for another xray next week and I get a bit concerned over those so just keep our family in your prayers. Thanks, Joey's Dad June 14, 2006 Hey Folks, joey's bone doctor is most likely going to put him on a bone drug since his bone density level is horrible due to the steroids. His osteoporosis is really bad [-3.5] and if not for him being so young he would be in much pain. He is breakable so he has to be careful in how he does stuff. He lives his life normal, just can't go out for many contact sports. He jogs and does push ups to strengthen his bones. As for his cancer, it's still gone. Still have to go to his cancer doc for another couple years for checkups but everything looks fine with his blood. Thanks for checking in on him, Joey's dad. April 6, 2006 Sorry folks for missing a March update but I got some good news to report! Joey's xray reported no turmor and for the first time his docs said he was in remission. He also had an outpatient surgery last week to remove his catheport out of his chest since he won't be needing that any more. His bone doctor thinks Joey may be able to catch up his bone density either naturally or with some assistance. He just had a Vitamin D and Calcium test to see if he had any deficiencies there. Once those results are in, the bone doctor will make another assessment. Just thanking God for all the blessings he has shown us & things we have all learned through Joey's health. He better be my running partner starting next week. I'm goin to my niece's wedding in June and I plan on wasting my brother Chuck in the mile run! February 27, 2006 Unfortunately, Joey now has osteoporosis due to the steriod therapy associated with his chemo regiman. We will be seeing a Rhumotologist [sp?] to see what can be done to help Joey from further bone loss. He also goes in for another chest Xray to see if he has any growth in his chest. Joey took the news about his new condition as well as can be expected. In other news, he just took the ACT academic test as a 7th grader and got a 20 composite. Included in that was a math score of 26! February 10, 2006 Joe's Doc decided that it would be of benefit for Joey to have a bone scan since he suffered a broken bone. Although, his bone density may be normal, the fact that he was on steroid therapy for 2 years suggest that a bone xray may be of value. The Doc also ordered another chest xray to make sure there is no 'growing' in his chest cavity. Both procedures are being done just to be cautious. January 26, 2006 Happy New Year Folks! On January 12, Joey became a teenager and he is starting to get taller. Joey had his Catscan last week and the results were normal and nothing suspicious. Unfortunately, he broke his wrist the other day and is now in a cast. Not sure if it is a result of fragile bones from the chemo or not. He turned in another straight A effort in school. His bone marrow took a beating with the chemo so he will still be taking bactrim for the next few months. Keep him in your prayers. Joe's dad. December 23, 2005 With great bessings we are proud to say that Joey's last dose of chemo was yesterday. He finished his 2 years of treatment! In January he will have a catscan for a final check of his body. He will continue to go to the hospital once every month for blood work in the near term, then every 6 months until 5 years I believe. Thanks for all your prayers, he certainly has had alot of folks praying for him and we ask that you continue to keep him on your prayer list. Merry Christmas to all! November 3, 2005 Joey is still doing fine. I believe he only has two more chemo treatments, and he is done with his chemo pills around the first of the year. After that, he will be off chemo and only do the doc visit thing monthly for a year. Then something like just a few doc visits the next year. Kindly keep him in your prayers. September 28, 2005 Joey's still doing fine. Appears to be maintaining a cancer free body. Only 3 months left of chemo. August 25, 2005 Hey folks, Joey's treatment yesterday went fine. We were a little concerned because Joey said his chest felt different. Doc assessed him and said his catheport might have moved but other than that he looked fine. He has 4 more treatments and then this 24 month process will be over with! That will carry him to around January. He is looking forward to seeing all his buddies playing football on the Northwestern University football team. Also looking forward to being as active in sports as he was before he got cancer. He was really excited when we went to a Northwestern practice and Coach Randy Walker even let him huddle up with the players and chant big10 champs. Joey couldn't believe it! The QB, Brett Basenez even gave him a wristband. But after that he had to watch over the big guys on the Offensive line, especially since he is Zach Strief's bodyguard. |
| Joey's Story I don't believe I will ever forget the day when the Doctor told me, "your son has lymphoblastic lymphoma" It all started in the fall of 2003. As Joey was playing football he started looking winded. He complained of some chest pains during that time. I didn't really give it much attention since I assumed it was nothing, but I took him to the hospital to have some test run. That hospital trip turned into a nightmare shocker. After checking out ok for the normal heart test, Joey's Xray wasn't as healthy. He had a tumor the size of Texas that wanted to call his chest cavity home. Joey went from a very athletic kid to a sickly child. Without going into all the detail, I will just say his side effects were all the usual suspects. He has had 2 surgeries and will hopefully only need one more. Plenty of spinal punctures, chemo treatments, etc. and the resulting compromised immune system forced him to miss the remainder of the school year. OK, let's fast forward to 2005. Things are looking much better for Joe Babes. He is back to school, getting straight A's, active with friends, etc. He still takes chemo daily and gets treatments but not in the intense way as in 2003-2004. He doesn't have the greatest immune system with all the daily chemo and steroid pills in his body but with prayer and wise nutrition he is staying healthy. Although we believe in prayer, as a parent I couldn't help myself from checking out all the stats on Joey's cancer. His aggressive type killed 96 out of 100 kids back in the 70's but with today's high dose treatment, the 5-year survival rates are suppose to go something like this: anywhere between 30%-80% survival after 5 years depending on which web site. Remission rates are almost always 90% now with the chemo, but when the chemo is finished after 2 years, relapses within the 5 years is too high of a number for me that I don't take his life for granted. He's also at high risk of developing another cancer or to have serious heart,kidney, or liver problems. If you want to do something for him then we just ask that you pray for him to stay healthy. If you want to check on him then visit this page and I will provide updates below from time to time. To everyone who has helped....thank you. |
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| April vacation to the western Carribean. Joey with sis, Joey hanging out in Belize, Joey with brother in Costa Maya beach, Joey getting sick riding the waves on deep fishing vessel. |