Joshua’s journey with cancer began with what appeared to be a common cold virus at 6 months of age.

A visit to the pediatrician suggested just that. A few days went by. Symptoms got worse.  Joshua would only nurse but not eat food, he cried anytime he was not on Tylenol and had trouble sleeping.

The day before Thanksgiving another doctor saw him and realized that something was quite wrong.

Dr. Fairchild confirmed pneumonia from a chest X-ray and decided to run blood work secondary to how frail he began to look while at the appointment.

Joshua was called to the ER an hour later. Once there, Joshua had multiple blood tests. Three hours later we still had no answer and he was going downhill rapidly.

Then we heard the words from Dr. Fairchild, “We suspect Joshua has leukemia and we’re sending you to Blair Batson by ambulance.”

Our hearts sank. We cried out to God to save our son.

Thanksgiving morning came with an official diagnosis of a very severe case of infant ALL — acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Only six other cases of this had been previously treated in Mississippi. The oncologists immediately put him in ICU and began treatment but Joshua’s battle had just begun.

One night later seizures began and three massive brain bleeds were discovered. Treatment moved from that of surviving the cancer to surviving the brain bleeds.

With treatment by a fantastic team of doctors and much prayer Joshua was stabilized and his leukemia was in remission before his first Christmas. What followed was a year of chemotherapy with constant trials of how to give an infant a host of medicines, hiding them in anything to disguise the awful taste. Watching every bite of food to ensure he was getting enough calories to have the strength to fight. Keeping him isolated from the outside world to reduce the risk of any normal sickness that might be deadly to him with his weakened immune system.

A bleed in his right eye left him blind in that eye. Constant trips to the hospital left a lasting post-traumatic stress condition that has taken years to overcome.

After a very difficult one-year fight, Joshua completed his treatment and was ready to meet the world once again. He still had many battles left to fight as he tried to overcome the cruel deficits brought about by the brain trauma.

His attention, coordination, sensory system, visual processing skills, and his ability to control emotion and behavior are progressing at varying rates but are all behind his peers, requiring multiple therapies that have to be balanced with his school and home life.

Today, Joshua is a strong and resilient 10-year old boy who faced one of the darkest and hardest trials of his life at only 6 months old, too young to even know the dangers and seriousness of what he was up against, bit a lifetime of struggle to regain what was lost is his new battle and he attacks it every day.

 

-Ernest and Ginger Berney