Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403240092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLUE RIDGE LENGTH: Long
"Come on, Willie! There you go," coaxed his father, Mark Richardson, as the 15-month-old let go of his big sister, wobbled the three steps to his dad's armchair and half walked, half tumbled into his outstretched arms.
As far as technique or style was concerned, Willie's short trip was fairly typical of most toddlers' early walking attempts: adorably inefficient.
Willie, however, is hardly a typical toddler. Diagnosed last fall with myelodysplasia, a precursor to leukemia, Willie already has been through more tests, taken more medications and stayed at more hospitals than many people will in their entire lifetimes.
But unless you look under his shirt and see the two thin tubes coming out of his little body - direct lines into his veins that ease his twice-weekly blood tests and IVs - it's hard to tell that Willie has just come home from a two-month stay at Duke University Hospital, where he received a bone-marrow transplant.
"I don't know that he did any better than any other kid," Richardson said, watching as his son busily investigated camera equipment strewn across the living room floor. "But, by what we saw down there, he had a pretty good recovery."
Although he remained critically ill for two weeks after the Jan. 18 transplant, Willie recuperated quickly, said his mother, Keely.
"He just didn't know he was that sick," she said with a laugh.
And the longer Willie has been home, the stronger he has gotten. He's starting to get his appetite back - the chemotherapy wreaked havoc on his taste buds - and he has maintained a fairly steady weight throughout the process, Keely said.
Willie's steady recovery has been reassuring for his parents, who knew there were no real alternatives to a transplant but agonized over the decision just the same.
"Once you cross that bridge, there's no backing up," Mark said.
Willie had gone into remission after an initial round of chemotherapy, but his doctors knew the cancerous cells would return, probably quickly. The family decided to go ahead with the transplant, which was the only way to rid Willie's body of the diseased cells.
So what began in September with an original diagnosis of an ear infection led to six weeks of chemotherapy at the University of Virginia and the transplant at Duke's pediatric bone marrow unit.
Willie had two important people in his corner: his sisters, Lacy, 9, and Emily, 7, who both were perfect bone-marrow matches. His third sister, 6-year-old Kimmy, did not have compatible bone marrow.
While transplants of marrow from nonrelated donors may be successful, the odds of rejection are greatly reduced by blood ties, Keely said.
Because Lacy was older, and thus judged better able to deal with the procedure psychologically, she became the donor. It took about an hour for doctors to withdraw the bone marrow from her pelvic region with a needle, and then another hour to feed it into Willie intravenously.
For Lacy, a fourth-grade cheerleader at Colonial Elementary School, the procedure wasn't nearly as bad as she had thought it would be. Despite a little soreness, she was ready to start cheering again just about as soon as she came out of the anesthetic.
"I wanted to get up and walk around, but they wouldn't let me," she said.
She had been worried that she wouldn't be able to go right back to cheerleading, but she was practicing again within days. It's been worth the nervousness and soreness to have Willie back home, she said.
Would she do it again?
"Yeah," Lacy said with a grin, tickling her little brother.
The transplant itself was the most anticlimactic part of the ordeal, Mark said. The chemotherapy that readied Willie's body for the new bone marrow was much more trying, he said, because of the side effects - including an enlarged liver - and the constant risk of infection.
The whole ordeal has been a frightening learning experience, Mark Richardson said.
"You go through life with blinders on," he said. "When it happens to you, it really opens your eyes to it."
The family wouldn't have been able to make it through those tough months of treatment and recovery without the support, both emotional and monetary, given by the people of the Roanoke Valley, the Richardsons said.
Now, just two months after the transplant, Willie's blood counts are improving but the road to full recovery remains long and bumpy, Mark Richardson said.
Although doctors have told the Richardsons that Willie should be fine if he can make it through the first 18 months after the transplant, there is a chance that his body may reject the donated bone marrow for up to a year after the operation.
Willie must go to UVa once a week for blood tests and intravenous medication, and a home-health nurse visits the Richardsons once a week for additional testing. He's much less susceptible to sickness now that he's getting stronger, but any visitors or family members who have colds must wear masks in the house.
Willie's parents know it's far too early to proclaim the chemotherapy and the transplant a complete success, but it's hard for them not to be optimistic after Willie's remarkable progress thus far.
"You can't completely celebrate," Richardson said, holding his son in his arms. "But, by golly, you can cheer."
by CNB