Whenever I would read or hear of a young child or teenager dying, I would look at my two boys and think to myself how lucky I was to have healthy children and that losing a child would be the worst thing that could happen to any parent. I was right.
My name is Christy Rudolph. I am the mother of Nick Rudolph, who Frank Lunn so lovingly dedicated his St. Jude campaign to my son, along with Maya Pettit.
I will never forget May 23, 2002. About a week before, Nick told me that his throat was a little sore. He did not have a fever, he just seemed to be a little tired. After a couple of days his throat was still sore so I decided to take him to the doctor. He had a strep culture which came back negative. The next step was to draw blood for a CBC and to look for infections. That night came the call. “Your son is very sick, please bring him to the hospital right away!” I remember being sick to my stomach and thinking this can’t be happening, he just had a sore throat.
From that point on, our lives were changed forever. We live in Peoria, IL, which has a St. Jude affiliate. After more testing of Nick’s blood we were told he had cancer, he was 15 years old. He had a form of leukemia called AML, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and that we would be going to St. Jude Hospital in Memphis for his treatment.
Nick and I were flown to Memphis while my husband drove 7 hours. Only one parent could fly in the plane. When we arrived Nick was immediately taken to ICU. As the elevator doors opened doctors were standing there waiting to meet with me. They took me by the hand and never let go. I listened to them explain to me about his cancer and how they were going to treat him and all I could think of was, my son’s life is now in the hands of people who were strangers in a hospital and a city where I knew no one and knew nothing about. I can not explain the emotions I was feeling. Everything was happening so fast I thought, “How am I going to handle all of this?” In time, those strangers, that hospital and that city became our life and support.
After six months of treatment Nick was in remission and we were able to go home. He was tutored at home until he was strong enough to go back to school. He was doing wonderful and having the time of his life. Seven months after we came home the cancer was back. We went back to Memphis for more chemo, radiation and then a bone marrow transplant. In November of 2003, he had the transplant. He did really well and was in remission again. Then in December the leukemia came back again. He was given more chemo which made him so sick that he ended up in ICU. He did get better and he went to the second floor to a regular room. A couple of days later he complained about a pain in his back. After taking x-rays his doctors called us down to their office. It was the longest walk my husband and I ever took. We were told he had a fungal infection in his lung and the only way to treat it was to surgically cut it out. Then we heard the words “There is nothing more we can do”. They could not treat both the leukemia and the infection at the same time.
My beautiful 17 year old son, who fought so hard with courage and strength and who had so much yet to do, was going to die. He passed away peacefully on Feb 8, 2004 at St. Jude Hospital.
There are stories like ours and there are many St. Jude success stories. We have many friends whose children were St. Jude patients and are doing great and we are so thankful for that. I know that everyone at St. Jude did everything possible to save our son’s life. The doctors, nurses and staff of St. Jude are the most loving, caring and compassionate group of people I have ever met. We love them all and so did Nick.
Please help the kids and their families of St. Jude. No parent or child should ever have to go through what we did.
Christy
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