Meet Tucker Haas: |
On November 23rd, 2002, Tucker was just two years old, his mom found a bump behind his right ear. His parents took him to the Pediatrician and they sent him to the York Hospital to have tests done. The doctor’s exact words to his parents were: “Your son has cancer.” The cancer he had was very rare and doctors from five different hospitals around the world all said that it was a different kind of cancer. They called it an undifferentiated sarcoma. The cancer is a soft tissue tumor. It was on the right side of his face and on one of his ribs. Just two days later, he was at the Hershey Medical Center. Starting in December 2002, he had chemotherapy for a whole week (five days) every third week for the entire first year of treatment. He had radiation for 31 days at Johns Hopkins. He was then in remission for 10 months. He got to go home and didn’t have cancer anymore. Unfortunately, he relapsed and the cancer came back to his right lung so he had a surgery called a thoracotomy. Every other week, he had chemotherapy, but the tumor wasn’t shrinking so then he had a stem cell transplant. The cancer was then put into remission for six months.
Tucker then had his second relapse to the lung. It was to the right side just like it was with his face. He had oral chemotherapy and of course that did not shrink the tumor. Then, he had radiation for another 31 days. Following the radiation, Tucker was in remission for another 11 months. But, unfortunately, he had his third relapse to the same right lung. Tucker had his second thoracotomy surgery, 15 more radiation treatments. He was, yet again, put to sleep everyday. He now had had a total of 77 radiation treatments. Tuckers parents tell me that I glow whenever the lights are off. Radiation was the only thing that would get rid of his tumor. Cancer has changed his life forever. Due to the many rounds and types of chemotherapy and radiation, Tucker stopped growing. Because of that, he has to get a shot every-night. These shots cost $5,000.00 a month. In the past five years, he has grown over two feet. Tucker also has developed a cataract in his right eye, loss of hearing in his right ear, all of his adult teeth are loose so it is hard for him to eat and the right side of his face is scarred. Due to all of the radiation, Tucker only has a third of his right lung which makes it hard for him to breathe and he gets winded very quickly. These are the treatments of Tucker's past. Although he fought cancer for five years of his life, we are proud to say that on February 12th he became 12 years cancer free!!! |
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