Hello! My name is AJ Gillen. I am proud to be an Alex's Lemonade Stand Hero, but with that title comes the experience of many life hurdles at a young age. I was fourteen years old when the largest hurdle of my life had appeared before me. Up till the the age of fourteen, I was a very healthy kid; I once participated in a study from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia because of my clean health. In November 2008, I had some minor upper back pain that I assumed was from sleeping awkwardly. A couple of weeks passed, and come Thanksgiving I remember telling my Aunt that I had been dealing with some back pain, but I was not sure what the cause of it was. By this time the pain was slightly worse, but I was not very concerned with it while hoping it would fade on its own. Only a few days passed, and the mysterious pain began waking me up from the intense, sharp pain interrupting my sleep. After this had started, part of my left arm had become numb, and my fingers were noticeably weakening. My mother called the local hospital with my symptoms, and they recommended that I should come into the Emergency Department. At the Emergency Department, the doctor thought it might be Left Ulnar Neuropathy, a disorder involving the left ulnar nerve. The doctor wanted to schedule an electromyography test, a test that assesses the health of muscles and the nerve cells. The earliest test I could schedule in the area was ten days away at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children located in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 15, 2008. Days before the scheduled test it became increasingly difficult to stand and walk; on the day of the test I could not walk into the hospital. Once I arrived at the hospital, the electromyography test was performed just in case even though the doctors did not believe there was anything wrong with my nerve's functionality. The doctors explained that what I was experiencing was paralysis. The doctors ordered an MRI which revealed that there was a tumor pressing on the upper left side of my spinal column. I was put into the Intensive Care Unit, and six hours after the MRI, at 7:30AM on December 16, 2008, I went into neurosurgery for six hours. The surgeons removed the tumor, fused my spinal column from vertebra C6 to T1 and sent the tumor to be examined to determine if it was benign or malignant. I was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer, Ewing's Sarcoma, on December 19, 2008. On December 20, 2008, at 1am, I was transferred by ambulance to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP, because it was closer to where I lived. I immediately had many tests done along with the installation of a broviac, similar to a port, into my chest. I began physical therapy and occupational therapy. My first session of physical therapy was just sitting up in my bed.

My road map for chemotherapy and radiation was shown to me. I had a round of chemo that took three days, then a round that took five days; these two rounds alternated every other week, with one week of no treatment between rounds for recovery. On New Year's Eve, I started my first round of chemotherapy. After the first round was completed, I discharged from the Oncology Unit to the Seashore House, CHOP's inpatient rehabilitation facility. Up till this point, I had always been transferred by a wheelchair, but I also started using a walker once I was admitted to the Seashore House. The plan was to keep discharging and admitting me back and forth between the Oncology Unit when I had to do chemotherapy and the Seashore House when I was in between rounds. After my third round of chemotherapy while I was admitted in the rehabilitation unit, I started using a quad cane instead of a walker. After five rounds of chemotherapy my broviac had to be removed and replaced due to an unforeseen complication with the line. After I woke up from the procedure, I was discharged on March 10, 2009, after spending nearly three months in the hospital. 

After my seventh round of chemotherapy, shortly after I was admitted to the Emergency Room due to my third infection throughout my treatment. While treating that infection with antibiotics as an inpatient, I also began radiation therapy, which would last six weeks, five days a week at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine across the street from CHOP. Shortly after, I did not need my quad cane to walk anymore. I finished radiation treatment on May 14, 2009. Rounds eight through fourteen went fairly well, I completed chemotherapy treatment at the age of fifteen years old on July 24, 2009. I underwent many post-treatment tests, and on August 3, 2009, I was officially declared to be in remission. I continued doing outpatient physical and occupational therapy after my treatment. On August 24, 2009, I jogged on the treadmill for the first time in nine months! On December 5, 2009, almost exactly a year after my fight started, I had become a Make-A-Wish kid and was picked up in a limo at 4AM and driven to the Philadelphia International Airport for my Make-A-Wish trip to Jamaica. After numerous improvements in physical and occupational therapy and clean scan results within the following three months, on March 3, 2010, I finished my physical therapy. Six moths later on September 14, 2010, I completed my occupational therapy. Two months later, scan results showed that I was still in remission.

Fast forwarding to July 24, 2014, as a junior year Human Resource Management major at Shippensburg University and Vice President of my fraternity, I had been off of treatment for five years, officially making me a cancer survivor. Now in 2015, I am now a senior in college about to start a life with my beautiful girlfriend. I am healthier than ever before and have recently started a pescatarian diet. Many people get very upset over the diagnoses of cancer, and rightly so, but as someone who has been through it before, my recommendations for anyone affected by cancer in any form is to realize that your response changes the attitude about a situation. This occurrence has come into your life, whatever form that may be in, so the simple matter of the fact is that all that remains is your response to it. My positivity throughout my battle made all the difference. Your mental health is intertwined with your physical health. My cancer has benefited me. I developed characteristics and lifestyle changes that have ultimately made me happier and healthier than without my diagnosis. I choose to make my experiences positive ones. A situation is only what you make of it. Keep fighting the fight.

Information provided by AJ Gillen
Last update: July 2015