How We Found Out

 Glen, Spencer and I have discussed that, in order to keep friends and family up to date with Spencer's treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, that we will post frequent updates here on the blog.  Please feel free to pass the blog address along to others who may be interested in following along with Spencer Goold's story. 

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The first hint that anything was wrong with Spencer, was a day back in October.  Spencer had an all-day lacrosse tournament that he was excited to be participating in.  He'd had a great summer season and he was looking forward to playing during the fall.  He got a ride there with a friend, then Glen met them there a little later to watch the games.  Shortly after the first game started, Spencer randomly threw up and could not continue playing any of the games.  They came home hours earlier than expected. 

He was in the midst of a bad cold at the time, so we chalked it all up to being extra mucousy from that and never thought another thing about it. 

Until a couple weeks later it happened again.  We were perplexed, but still assumed it was remnants of the cold that caused it. 

Long story short, it kept happening, but it was still infrequent enough that we weren't overly concerned yet.  I did keep researching online, but because his symptoms didn't occur any other time that when he was running, we literally couldn't find anything that it might be.  Every site we saw just said to not run so hard. 

Finally he started having frequent headaches and seemed a little more tired than usual, so I brought him to the pediatrician.  We saw a different doctor that day than we're used to and the doctor really focused her attention on the headaches.  After an examination and series of questions she determined that the headaches didn't really sound like anything out of the ordinary and that the vomiting, although he'd lost 15 lbs. since June, was probably just due to previously undiagnosed allergies.  She recommended he take Claritin. 

The Claritin actually did help the headaches, but the vomiting continued and Spencer was getting to the point that he couldn't really exercise anymore.  

Finally, last Sunday I looked up at Spencer as he sat with the other priests blessing the sacrament and thought that he looked pale.  I made another appointment with the pediatrician and resolved that we would not stop until we figured out why a perfectly healthy teenager could go from running a 5:20 mile to not being able to make it through warm-ups without throwing up. 

We got a different doctor this time and although she was one of our favorites in the practice, I was still surprised at how much time she took with us and how she seemed to share our resolve for getting to the bottom of everything.  She immediately made us appointments for a cardiologist and a pulmonologist, just to rule out heart/lung issues. 

On Monday Spencer went to the cardiologist where they did an EKG and an echocardiogram.  Once again, I was somewhat surprised at how genuinely attentive the doctor was.  The tests did not find anything too problematic, but the cardiologist mentioned that his heart was slightly enlarged.  He assured us that that in and of itself wasn't overly concerning, but that it could indicate him having anemia or something else going on in the blood that would cause his heart to have to work harder.  He noted that Spencer seemed pale, gaunt, and had slight yellow undertones to his skin. After consulting with the pediatrician, he ordered a whole series of blood tests.  We went to the lab, had his blood drawn and went home. 

Tuesday, I took him to the pulmonologist.  They did a bunch of breathing tests and found him to have slightly depressed lung capacity, but once again, not enough to be concerned about by itself.  Then the doctor mentioned that Spencer's throat looked like it had white patches on it and that he should get a strep test.  She apologized and told me that they did not do throat cultures there, but that she'd talk to our pediatrician and see if they could squeeze us in quick.  At this point we were relaxing a bit.   We still hadn't heard about the blood tests and that the cardiologist and the pulmonologist had been unable to find anything significant. 

About half hour later the pulmonologist came back looking noticeably more serious, then, in a change of heart, offered to take the throat culture there in the office.  The remainder of the visit was short and afterward she handed me a copy of Spencer's chest x-ray.   I still wasn't alarmed, but looking back now, I am convinced that our pediatrician had shared the news with her at that point, and that was the reason for the change of heart on the throat culture and the unexpected returning of the lung x-ray to us. 

Afterward we returned home, Spencer went off to hang out with a friend, and I made dinner.  Then about 5:00pm the pediatrician's office called.  She beat around the bush for a minute, told me to sit down and brace myself, and in the next instant said the words that would change our lives forever.  Three hours later we sat in a pediatric oncology room in the hospital wondering where this journey was going to take us. 

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