The kid sat on the bed looking much like any 9-year-old boy: T-shirt, jeans, a mop of brown hair, a can of Shasta soda in one hand and an Xbox 360 at his feet.
It wasn’t until the nurse walked in and he raised his shirt that you saw a tube leading to the meta-port, an implant in his left pectoral muscle that served as the receptacle to an IV tube.
The IV tube carried the chemotherapy drugs, plus the medicine to ease the pain.
The boy’s name is Jonathan Harrison. He’s dealing with his second bout with leukemia. So are his parents, Tony and Elizabeth.
He has weekly chemo treatments at a clinic. Every three weeks, he checks into Children’s Hospital in Aurora for a two-night stay. Then it’s home to Westminster, where everyone tries to keep things moving normally.
“I’m feeling OK,” Jonathan said. “But I’m tired.”
The kid’s a trouper. His parents are trying to be. They learned how different life would be in December 2003 when their son, whose hip bruise had oddly migrated to his back, began screaming in agony.
Cancer had migrated from his bone marrow to his bloodstream. Soon, Elizabeth and Tony, stunned and scared, were sitting with a doctor.
“The initial reaction was disbelief,” Tony said of the diagnosis. “Then you’re trying to learn everything you can about the disease.”
A break came when Jonathan’s cancer was declared in remission soon after its diagnosis. But July saw a relapse, when he began complaining of blurred vision. “It’s tougher the second time around,” Elizabeth said. “The chemo is so much stronger.”
But the boy who enjoys baseball and math — “I just think it’s easy” — is strong, too. He speaks in public about childhood leukemia, helping to raise funds and awareness about the deadliest cancer for people under 20.
Jonathan attends Pinnacle Charter School, where his classmates are staging a “Pennies for Patients” drive sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
“This year has been hard on him,” Elizabeth said. “It’s difficult for him to be in and out of school so much.”
The room at Children’s is on the seventh floor with views of the Eastern Plains. It’s comfy, with a sofa, and the TV comes with that Xbox 360.
Soon Jonathan begins a cranial radiation treatment. After that, maintenance chemo for who knows how long.
Because cancer racks the immune system, a common cold becomes a big deal. A fever higher than 101 degrees means a trip to the emergency room. Jonathan can’t swim in lakes or rivers because of the bacteria. Doctors aren’t keen on him even swimming in a pool.
It’s no way to spend the fourth grade. Or your time as a young parent. “He’s a typical kid,” Elizabeth said. “He likes to play. But he gets so tired.”
Maintaining a normal environment for Jonathan’s two brothers is a challenge. I asked the couple if they had advice for parents facing what they’re going through.
“Just remember that they’re children and that they need to be children,” Elizabeth said.
Added Tony: “The big thing for families is to join a support group. If there are other siblings, they should meet siblings from families going through this. You just need to know you’re not alone.”
I asked Jonathan if he ever got scared. His eyes were half-closed from the painkiller, but he shook his head.
“Not by this.”
William Porter’s column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.
