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I connected with one of today’s guests, Brady, through our shared alma mater, Penn State University.  He has dealt with cancer not once, but twice, and he agreed to come on the podcast with his mother, Lisa.  I’m so honored to have both of them on the show to share their experiences, and to continue to spread awareness about this terrible disease during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

In this episode, we talk about…

[2:35] Lisa’s and Brady’s family

Brady has an older brother and a younger brother.  His parents are divorced and his mother is remarried, and Lisa shares that the family all pulls together for Brady, no matter what.  He has a lot of people who love him, and Brady is grateful.

[3:30] Brady’s cancer diagnosis

April 2005 feels like several lifetimes ago for Lisa.  Eight-year-old Brady and his older brother Ryan  were playing with their basketball hoop in the basement, and Ryan knocked Brady to the ground hitting his face on the ceramic tile.  His face started swelling a bit, and the doctor advised watching for a concussion.

In the weeks that followed, Brady would come home from school crying about horrible headaches.  The swelling in his face didn’t go down, and his headaches didn’t go away.  Lisa called the doctor again because Brady had a fever.  Again, the doctor couldn’t pinpoint anything that was wrong.  The next time Brady came home with a headache, Lisa called for another appointment.  They wanted to push him to another day, and Lisa brought him to the office to have him seen immediately.  She advocated for her child, because she knew something wasn’t right.

They got a strep test, and Brady tested positive.  They also sent him to the ENT to make sure he didn’t have mono or something else, because he was getting tired and listless. The ENT ordered a full blood panel.  The next day, she called and told Lisa that Brady had leukemia.  She advised Lisa to take him to Hershey or to Johns Hopkins for further testing, and then they could determine what type it was and a plan of action.

[9:05] Feeling helpless as a mother

It was, of course, completely unexpected and devastating news.  Brady was a healthy child, and suddenly he had cancer.  Time stopped, and Lisa felt helpless.  As a mother, you want to fix everything for your child; you want to make everything better.  In this case, you can’t do anything.

Lisa couldn’t associate leukemia with cancer.  In her mind, leukemia sounded better than cancer did.  She quickly took him to the medical center, and a whirlwind of tests and blood work followed.  “It’s like everybody else’s world kept going, but our world just completely stopped,” Lisa explains.  

[12:03] Brady’s memories surrounding his diagnosis

Brady acknowledges that his mom tried to protect him, and so there are parts of the story of his diagnosis that he is just finding out now.  He does, however, remember seeing his mom crying in the kitchen.  She told him he was going to go to Hershey Medical Center, and he knew something wasn’t right.  As an optimistic, positive child, Brady thought they would go to Hershey and then go to Texas for the NASCAR races as planned.  Little did he know, that when he went into the hospital he would be there for 23 days.

While it was a “moment of innocence,” according to Brady, he also did know a lot about what was going on.  He advises parents to consider that their children perceive more than they may think.  When he was told that he had cancer, he wanted to know if he was going to lose his hair.

[16:15] Handling cancer treatment as the patient and as the parent

According to Brady, there were two things he complained about during treatment: PEG asparaginase shots in his thighs, and Pentamidine.  A spinal tap, a bone marrow aspiration, or chemo? No problem.  Those were the two things that caused him the most discomfort.  Looking back now, Brady admits that he didn’t really understand the full extent of his treatment.  He did what he had to do to get through it, and his family tried to keep him in good spirits.  They would also take advantage of the activities the hospital offered, like time in the playroom and Bingo games.  He didn’t always realize how atypical his experiences were compared to other people.

For Lisa, it was a struggle to handle being at the hospital so much.  She didn’t know if Brady was going to live or die, and she had two other children to think about as well.  It was a difficult balance, and years later she learned more about their perspectives during this time.  A couple years later, his older brother’s English teacher showed her a paper he wrote about how he blamed himself for Brady getting cancer.  They had been playing together before the injury that prompted the first in that long string of doctors’ visits.  Something like this affects the whole family, but it’s also easy to get overwhelmed being the caretaker for the child who is ill.  His older brother, however, was also suffering because he was blaming himself for his brother getting sick.

Lisa also points out that Brady didn’t have to watch himself get a spinal tap or a bone aspiration, but she did.  She would have done anything to take his place, and it was almost like an out-of-body experience to watch these major medical procedures being performed on your child.  She did, however, feel blessed to have such a committed staff taking care of Brady.  Trust was the key, and they never let themselves think that Brady wasn’t going to get better.  It was all a means to an end.

[24:50] Brady’s takeaways about himself and his relationship with his mom

Brady feels very close to his family, as they stuck together and fostered hope through such a difficult experience.  They spent hours upon hours in the hospital together, finding different things to make them laugh.  He and his mom would watch Austin Powers, and as an eight-year-old Brady didn’t understand all the references in the movie, but it made him laugh.  

Brady started feeling sick again when he was fourteen years old.  He had just started his freshman year of high school, where he was playing on the varsity golf team.  His teammates were coming down with an illness, and Brady was wondering how he wasn’t sick yet given his impaired immune system.  Then one day he was sitting in his biology class and he noticed that he wasn’t feeling well.  The next day, he developed a fever and his mother wouldn’t allow him to go to the Friday night football game.  That Sunday, he started feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder.  His oncologist wanted him to come in to get checked out, because she thought me might have pneumonia.

On that drive up, Brady shares, they probably knew what was going to happen but they didn’t want to believe it.  When his oncologist told them that the cancer had returned, Brady remembers closing his eyes and praying.  He had just put in all this work to get better, and now he was going to have to deal with it again.

[29:54] The bond between Brady’s medical caregivers and his family

Five years after his original diagnosis, Brady was back in the hospital due to his relapse.  He noticed that they put him in the exact same room, and he also had the exact same nurse.  There was some comfort in that, but they still didn’t completely know what to expect.  He had some side effects from the first round of treatment that could have complicated any future treatment.  Ultimately, Brady remembers that he and his family were motivated for each other and pushed one another to stay positive.

Lisa remembers Brady’s oncologist as a “powerhouse”.  She was intimidating, and it was overwhelming to meet her during that first whirlwind trip to the medical center with all the paperwork and the tests.  During Brady’s treatments, she and the rest of the staff treated them like family.  They treated him as they would have treated their own family members.

[32:40] Brady’s bone marrow transplant

The normal protocol would have been for Brady to get radiation and then the bone marrow transplant.  His oncologist stepped outside the box and looked at an alternative treatment for him.  She gave Brady and his family all the information she could, and then let them decide.  They went with the course of treatment she suggested, which was a bone marrow transplant without radiation.

Brady has two brothers, and Lisa was hoping his older brother would be a match.  It was his younger brother, however, who was the perfect match.  In February 2011, Brady received his transplant.  This experience could make up a whole other podcast episode, but Brady has been able to recover with no further relapses at this point.

[36:53] How Brady supports other families dealing with childhood cancer

Brady’s goal was always to give back in whatever way possible.  It took him 16 years, though, to address some issues surrounding his cancer journey.  He has seen a psychologist to address survivors’ guilt, and that makes it easier for him to interact with patients and their families.  He now has a better understanding of the feelings that surfaced around why he survived when others didn’t, and why he put pressure on himself to represent everyone who didn’t make it.

Since it is childhood cancer awareness month, Brady has been reflecting a lot recently.  His cancer has definitely impacted his life in many ways.  He will likely be unable to have children because of chemotherapy and other treatments.  During his first round of cancer, his ankle bones collapsed as he was walking out of the grocery store and he had to teach himself to walk again over the next six months.  He has an enlarged spleen and liver fibrosis, so he can’t drink alcohol.

Yes, these treatments helped BRady to survive, but there are long-term side effects of cancer.  It pushes him to want to do more, because we still don’t know why the rate of childhood cancer continues to increase.  Brady also focuses on situations that can change, such as preventing siblings from having to endure so much pain and making sure children truly understand what is going on.  This goal is where Brady focuses within his professional and academic interests, as far as looking at children’s literature and other mediums to move forward and allow all individuals to really understand the full picture of childhood cancer.

[41:59] A few of Brady’s favorite things

Brady loves cooking and baking, and considers himself a huge foodie.  He exercises and plays golf.  Brady also prides himself on three areas: family, friends, and education.  He gives ll the power and glory to God for getting them to this point.  He and Lisa text every morning, and he talks to his siblings almost every day as well.  His fiance and other important people in his life continue to ground him.  Education is huge for Brady because it was always the constant.  It kept him going because it got him through treatment no matter what was happening.  If he could keep his education on par with the rest of his class, he felt like he was going to do well within his treatment as well.  Brady has earned a bachelor’s degree, and he has almost completed a master’s degree as well.

[44:42] What Lisa’s children have taught her about life

The most important thing for Lisa is that her family is together.  They spent a lot of holidays and birthdays in the hospital, and celebrating being with each other was huge.  The greatest gift for Lisa is that she not only loves her children, but she also likes them.  They inspire her, and they bring so much love into the world.  

Lisa advises her family members as well as others to always leave on a positive note.  Don’t leave each other mad.  Always say I love you and hug each other goodbye.  Your life can change in an instant, and we are not guaranteed time – but we all have now.

CONNECT WITH BRADY:

Twitter: twitter.com/bradyluu

Instagram: instagram.com/bradyluu

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bradychristopherlucas

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