Maverick was your typical two, almost three years old, before being diagnosed with B cell lymphoma on September 9th, 2020. He loved riding four-wheelers with his cousins and just playing outside from sun up to sun down!
Before cancer, he was such a caring, happy, sweet, and healthy boy! He was hardly ever sick! That’s until August 25th, 2020, and he woke up with a stye in his eye that wouldn’t go away. I took him to his Dr., and the diagnosis was just a stye in his eye! He was doing okay, then he started to throw up once a day, and then the fevers started! I took him to two emergency rooms. One of them said he was fine, and the other one said he had orbital cellulitis.
My momma Intuition told me something else very bad was going on inside his little body. He was so weak and couldn’t even walk. So on September 5th, 2020, one day after his orbital cellulitis diagnosis, I took him to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Emergency Room. As soon as the doctor saw him, she knew something was very wrong. A few hours passed, and the doctor came into the room and asked me to turn the television off. I was sitting there alone because of covid. The doctor sat in front of me with tears in her eyes and told me we were being admitted to the hematology and oncology floor because they suspected he had cancer. At that moment, I couldn’t get any words or tears out. It just felt like my world stopped.
September 9th,2020, is when Maverick was officially diagnosed with stage 4 B cell lymphoma.
He has had a fever for over 100 days now, and we’ve been here since his diagnosis!
After a few trips to the PICU, because his little body couldn’t handle his first two rounds of chemotherapy because of how sick he was, he is finally doing so much better!
My hope and dreams for Maverick are that he knows how hard a battle he fought and how strong he fought the battle unexpectedly thrown his way. I hope he knows how loved he is and how hard we fight with him. I hope he can make a dream for himself so I can watch him conquer it like he is doing with this nasty cancer!
Written by Cassidy Newton, mother of Maverick