Written by Jennifer Scaman Anderson
In May of 2016 my son Nicholas and I were involved in a car accident which totaled my car and a few weeks later he started complaining of leg pain periodically. With him only being 3 years old at the time we thought it might of been growing pains or a reaction to the accident but doctors weren’t finding anything so as time went on and him not wanting to play like a normal 3 year old he would always watch the Cubs on tv with me and always talked about Anthony Rizzo being his favorite player .
In October that year after they won the World Series he was already asking when they play again and dressed up as Anthony for Halloween. He didn’t want to trick or treat very much due to painful legs so took him back to the doctors they finally did an X-ray on his legs in late November and still found nothing so they gave us a bloodwork order to do at our convenience. With job schedules and 3 other children to take care of we didn’t rush to get it done then we noticed a horrible bruise on the back of both his ears and complaining about his ears hurting on top of the leg pain my heart sank and I knew what was going on with him but still needed a diagnosis so December 9th after bloodwork was done he was admitted to the hospital with a leukemia diagnosis.
At first we we had a week and a half stay at a local hospital until December 21st when we were transferred to Lurie Childrens hospital. The only thing he wanted to bring from home was his Rizzo bobble head and Baez ( plush) doll to decorate his room. It was really hard to watch your child being so sick and trying to keep him comfortable so when he was having bad days between bone marrow biopsies ,chemo treatments , blood draws and every other test and treatment we would talk about the cubs put his cubs puzzle together and draw pictures as much as possible since we had an off and on extended stay ( from December til April) and constant continued treatment weekly for a year he was hoping to meet his favorite player at the hospital but no such luck .
With the help of the amazing doctors ,my sons donor , the Chicago Cubs, unknowingly Anthony Rizzo, and family and friends my son Nicholas who had multiple bone marrow biopsies being in pediatric icu multiple times pneumonia, rotavirus, c-diff , pleural effusion , and multiple other tests and trials he is in remission and still watches every cubs game and ❤️’s Anthony.
