How it all started for Austin

Hi, It's Austin's mom. Austin is back from Costa Rica and is canvassing the neighborhood for donations to the Courage Classic. It's so great to see him feeling good. Three years ago around this time, he wasn't doing well at all. I thought I should share how his journey with cancer began.

Austin has always had a ferocious appetite for physical activity. He loves competition, and continually challenges himself to excel; just a little bit faster, higher or longer. Two days before he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he was mountain biking up a 12,000 foot mountain with family and screaming back down the single-track trail. He had a terrible headache which got worse with each gain in altitude and was wearing reflective glasses to combat double vision. Was it wise to let him attempt such a feat? No, but try stopping him.

Monday morning, August 22, 2005 was the first day of seventh grade at Summit Middle School. He had been in school for two hours when we received the call from Dr. Foreman that previous tests results were in and we should rush in to Children’s Hospital for an MRI. Austin’s blood test had come back abnormal. That afternoon, Austin and I sat in Dr. Foreman’s office and heard those terrible words that you never, ever consider. Your child has cancer; an aggressive-growth brain tumor almost the size of a golf ball. The look of compassion and sympathy on Dr. Foreman’s face was of comfort; but his command of the situation and an immediate, precise plan was what really gave us hope. You have to have a plan to grasp your arms around. We discovered recently that Austin always had complete confidence in his team of doctors and never considered anything dire.

The next day Austin had a med port installed and the day after was the first of six rounds of Chemo. We were pretty nervous going in but when we arrived, there was a nurse/EMT named Mike that was going from room to room with taped up syringes in the form of an ‘oozy’ and taking squirts at the kids who were laughing and dodging. This guy was cool and suddenly things didn’t seem so scary anymore. Austin joined in and eventually bribed the nurse into giving him his hand-made weapon. Day one done. It was going to get rough for quite a while.