Hello and thank you for taking the time to visit my page. For the past 4 or 5 years my wife Laura and I have been participating with St Baldrick's and have been trying to raise money to assist with funding children's cancer research. Please continue reading this possibly long reasoning behind why we do it and even if you don't donate, being able to share our story is enough for me.
To be honest I began volunteering for this event because I worked as an Army Medic for the Pediatric Department at Tripler AMC. I came from line units where all of my patients were adults who either drank too much or did something they really weren't supposed to and were now paying the price. You can guess that when I found out I was going to be assigned to the Peds Department I figured it would be nothing but sunshine and rainbows and for the most part it was. However within my first year there I was introduced to a whole new world, kids who had VERY REAL problems. Ones that I was not prepared to deal with, either way as my time in the department passed by I began getting to know these patients, many who have grown up and moved on and some who have moved on in a very different way and although there was a lot of sadness the main memory that stuck with me was the joy that these kids and their parents brought to the lives of everyone around them.
Some of them involved running through the Pediatric clinic hallways armed with nerf guns stalking providers and nurses alike, staying up late in a patients ward room watching horror movies or playing with a Nintendo Wii and who could every forget getting the strongest hugs you could every feel from such a small girl that was always smiling. The happiness and love that these families shared wasn't just for a select few, no, it was for everyone that they came across. That's why we started participating, now for the reason why we continue is another story.
For the longest time my wife and I had planned how our life would be, 3 kids a boy and a girl, a house, 2 dogs and careers (not jobs LOL). By 2014 after being together for 13 years (since high school), we had managed to achieve all of that. My wife was a Respiratory Therapist for the same department I started in Tripler with and I was Clinical Sytems Trainer for the same hospital. We owned a home with enough room for a family and we had 2 great dogs, Terra (our energetic Aussie) and Dallas (our super lazy Golden), all we were missing were our kids (our cat Falco was a plus). It was around then that we received news that as Dwight Schrutte from "The Office" would say "perfectenschlag". My wife was pregnant and we were having a boy! For the sake of making this short lets just say that certain events happened and our Payton Dean had to say goodbye to us before we were even able to hold him. We watched from outside his room in the NICU as he slowly slipped away and that pain will forever be in our lives.
Fast forward 2 years later and my wife was once again pregnant, this time with twins. Our baby boy Luke Michael and our baby girl Ember Dove, and shortly after we once again had to say good-bye to our son.
After all this after a few more years my wife was once again pregnant with another set of twins, fear gripped our hearts again but thankfully this time we were able to bring our daughter and son home after a month in the NICU.
We didn't lose our boys to cancer, that's true but the pain of loss is still there. When a person becomes a parent everything changes, your priorities, your life goals, your dreams and your fears. When you see that little one sleeping calmly all you want to do is protect them and ensure they grow up healthy and happy. I served as an Army medic for over 10 years and I have seen and gone thru many things, but nothing has made me feel more depressed than losing our boys, nothing has caused me to fear more than the thought that something could happen to our girls and our son, and nothing has ever made me feel more powerless than to watch as our sons pass. That is the reason we continue to support this cause. It doesn't matter what the reason is, no parent should ever have to go thru those feelings and no child should be taken from this world when we have the means to prevent it. In the future we truly hope that this can be cured.
If you've read this far thank you very much, even if you don't donate the fact that you allowed me to share our story if enough for me.
