Hello, my name is Raymond, and here is a brief history of my battle with cancer.

In 1999, I began to have a lot of pain and weakness in my legs. I started running a low grade fever. I was in a lot of pain, I did not complain. However when I bumped my leg or somebody touched my knee, I would let out a yell. Well, off to the doctor I went, I explained I had aches and a fever. The doctor looked in my ears, in my throat, then said it is a virus, and sent me home with instructions to take Tylenol.

Time passes, my temperature is now 99 to 101, my aches are worse, I look pale, and my father complained how at the last visit they did no blood tests. So, the doctor checks me out again, sends me home with instructions to now take children's Motrin. No blood tests, despite my Father asking them. They told him no, they felt it was not needed. A few days later, I get a big nose bleed. It does not stop. After a while, my Father takes me to the Emergency Room, and they send me to the urgent care clinic. Still they did not run blood tests, despite my Father requests. What they do is cauterize the inside of my nose to stop the bleeding. My Father asks why they still do not do a blood test. They say the Motrin is what thinned the blood and that's why I bled so much. Then they sent me home telling me to rest and the virus will run its course and all will be well.

My father was mad that they still did no blood work. He said he knew something was not right, he had a feeling this was not a little virus. I continued to get worse, fever is higher, and I can barely walk. My father is mad and he takes me to the ER. He gave the ER doctor the run down, they sent me to urgent care saying it’s not an emergency. Same story, this time my father gives the doctor a detailed account of what I have gone through the last few weeks. My father tells the doctor, there is something seriously wrong with me, so do a blood test. My father insists on blood work, or he will file a complaint. They finally did blood work, after the test results came back; I was admitted to the hospital. I needed several transfusions of blood. I was in the hospital over night, after a few blood transfusions and better pain medicine I feel a little better. Then I see a hematologist and he does a test, a needle biopsy in my knee. At this time pain is worse now, and I was totally unable to walk at all. When the doctor comes back, they say it is possibly leukemia. Now they have my father take me to San Francisco to the oncology specialist. As we walked through the doors, well I rolled; my Poppy was pushing me in my wheel chair. Before my Poppy could speak, they said ‘ah you must be Raymond,’ and like a stock car pulling into the pits, they swarm on me, make me comfortable; hook me up, more blood transfusions, then tests. At first it looked like leukemia, in the end the first diagnosis was wrong. They said it is advanced neuroblastoma stage 4. I had a softball sized tumor near my liver; cancer cells had invaded my bone marrow. Later a bone scan indicated some bone activity, right where I had my leg pain. They said it was terminal and there is no cure, they could only treat each problem, and it was not going to be easy. I was given a grim prognosis, and my chance of a 2 year survival was 30%, without treatment, I had a month at the most. So it began, I was at war. I spent most of 1999, and the first few months of 2000 in the hospital. I think the ratio was for every one week I had at home, I spent 3 weeks in the hospital.

Written by Raymond Bautista
Posted: 07/09