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Gabe's Story
 Gabe was just shy of his first birthday when he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the head and neck. His parents, Lu and Rob Sipos noticed a lump behind his jaw that had been steadily growing. They had visited the pediatrician several times searching for the cause of his presumed enlarged lymph node and his newly acquired lazy eye. Antibiotics did not seem to work and in fact Gabe's symptoms were progressively getting worse. On Christmas Day 2002 his right eye began getting more and more distorted Rob and Lu decided it was time to make a trip to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital Emergency Room.
A CT scan Christmas night showed a large mass in his right sinus cavity, resting on his brain and pressing on his optical nerve. And on that night, as families all over the country settled into the winter evening, Rob and Lu heard the words no parent ever wants to hear. They were told Gabe, their beautiful baby boy, had a malignant tumor. It was cancer.
As the words escaped the doctor's mouth, Lu immediately turned her thoughts to a girlfriend who had survived breast cancer. She squeezed her husband's hand and said the words that became their mantra, "THIS IS NOT A DEATH SENTENCE."
Gabe would need regular radiation treatments and up to a year of chemotherapy to shrink and destroy the tumor on his cheek. The thought of it all was overwhelming. Rob, a Chicago native and Lu, originally from Great Britain, had no family in Nashville. They began to lean heavily on friends, co-workers and the wonderful staff at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
Ironically, Gabe and his family have an intricate history with Vanderbilt that goes back to Gabe's birth on New Year's Day 2002. In fact, Gabe was the first baby of the New Year in Nashville that year. His newborn face greeted the city from television and newspaper pages. Most babies born at Vanderbilt don't have to come back but fate brought Gabe back almost one year later to the day.
Rob was no stranger to the hospital himself. At the time of Gabe's diagnosis, he was a project engineer with the construction company building the new Monroe Carell Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. As he walked the floors every day, he could not have ever imagined that he was building the hospital for his son or that the doctors he had seen in passing would become an integral part of his son's medical team.
Rob and Lu felt lost, as their whole world changed in the blink of an eye. Their role in Gabe's life had changed. They were no longer able to kiss him and make everything okay. They now had to acquire the knowledge and understanding of what laid ahead. One thing that did come naturally was their dedication and strength to ensure Gabe was as happy and comfortable as possible. They knew recovery would come much easier that way. Secondly, they recognized the importance to support Gabe's medical team. They wanted to ensure Gabe took all medications and understood what to expect during procedures and hospital visits.
Gabe began his treatment and by spring he was doing normal one year old things. He was learning to walk in the halls, climbing on furniture and playing games with the other children. At the same time, he was receiving daily radiation treatments, getting to know the nurses by name and getting used to his little bald head due to countless visits for chemotherapy.
In an effort to help her child through the experience, Lu Sipos took a present left by a friend -- a stuffed yellow duck, fairly generic, except for his oversized orange beak -- and gave it an extreme makeover. She dressed it in blue hospital pajamas and tied a bandana around its head. She added a chemotherapy port on its chest and a blood pressure cuff and borrowed empty syringes from her son's nurses and gave them to Gabe, who began playing doctor. They named the duck Connor the Chemo Duck after Gabe's best friend.
Gabe would pretend to give Chemo Duck medicine through his chemo port. He would snuggle with Chemo Duck at night and would smile at Chemo Duck's big orange beak when he wouldn't smile at anyone or anything else.
The other children in the hospital and clinic took an interest in Gabe's stuffed duck. Lu took note (and Chemo Duck orders) and went out and bought every stuffed duck she could find. Lu sat and hand-sewed every set of pajamas and dressed all the ducks in their chemo attire. Gabe took an interest in what his mom was doing and when the time came to pass them out to other children in the hospital, Gabe proudly smiled and handed over each duck one by one. They were his gifts to his friends.
Gabe finished treatment with a resection of his tumor just days before Christmas 2002 and his cancer has been in remission ever since. Rob was happy that his son could start the New Year in good health and his hospital project finished with one less patient. Lu continued the Chemo Duck project, refining her process and even forming a nonprofit organization to help raise money for the project. Chemo Duck was growing into a full-scale program. Eventually leading the Sipos family to the ASCEND Foundation, whom they partnered with to manufacture and distribute Chemo Ducks to every child battling cancer.
As for Gabe, he still visits the Children's Hospital for routine visits and still plays doctor with his Chemo Duck. Today he is a proud cancer survivor who loves to spend time with other children in treatment. Although too young to remember specifics about his treatment, hospital living is a way of life for Gabe. He has a special way of bringing comfort to kids with cancer and feels that every Chemo Duck given out is his gift to other young cancer patients - a gift that provides a hope for a cure.
If you would like to e-mail Gabe, you can reach him at gabe@chemoduck.org.
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