#UNIQUELYNATHAN

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“Nathan was born on Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 11:16am. I will never forget that day. I got up like usual and got my son and granddaughter ready for school and took them to school. I came home and figured I would take a little nap before going grocery shopping. At 9:30am I told my husband I thought I was in labor. We went to the hospital and at 10:30am they broke my water and 46 minutes later, Nathan Andrew Doud graced us with his presence

From the very beginning, he never let anything or anyone stop him from doing things his way! It was like he was on a mission to conquer the world and nothing was getting in his way. He was rolling over at 2 weeks old, sitting up by 3 months and walking by 9 months! By the time he was a year old, he was talking in short sentences. The first 3 years of his life, he was a nonstop bundle of energy! He loved meeting new people and always won them over with his beautiful smile and bubbly personality.

Then everything changed. He tripped in the hallway about 3 weeks before his 3rd birthday and started saying that his arm hurt. So I took him in for x-rays. They couldn't find anything wrong with him so they sent us home. A few days later, he started saying that his leg hurt. I took him to his doctor and he wouldn't even let them touch his leg. So, they sent us for x-rays. Again, nothing was found. At this point we're thinking maybe it's growing pains. I started emailing his doctor and after explaining everything that was going on, he told me to bring him in on Monday for blood work (this was on Saturday). So, I take him in on Monday and on Tuesday, I got the dreaded phone call from his doctor... "Your child has cancer" I called my husband at work and he came home and we went to Hurley. After 3 platelet transfusions and 4 blood transfusions, they got him to his "home" for the next 6 days. They got him on the right medication and he was somewhat better. He responded very well to all his meds and never gave me a hard time about taking them. The only bad reaction he had was to Benadryl (he had never had it before)

So we settled in to our new "normal". He had a hard time with not being able to be around people. But then the pandemic hit and it was a little easier to make him understand that it wasn't just him that was being forced to stay home, everyone was stuck at home. Then, as things started to open up, we were back at square one. He just couldn't understand why other kids could go to the park and school and stuff and he couldn't.

Then came the day we had been looking forward to for 2.5 years! Nathan got to ring the bell! Now, he's back to conquering the world and is so happy that he doesn't have to facetime his friends and do virtual school! He is so excited to be able to go to face to face school this year and be able to play with his friends. And I'm a happy momma because I have my happy boy back!

Oh, I forgot to talk about the family! I think it hit my older son the hardest. In a way, I think he felt like he got pushed to the back burner because everyone's focus was on Nathan. He had a hard time adjusting to virtual school and not being able to hang out with his friends. He is also a little excited to be able to go back to face to face school. My life pretty much stayed the same. As a stay at home mom, it wasn't that hard to give up my social life. Especially if it meant keeping Nathan safe and healthy. My husband was able to take off from work whenever he needed to, so that was a blessing.

In some ways, it brought us closer as a family because we were all in this together. In other ways, it kind of put a strain on our family because, as I mentioned before, Ben felt like he was a after thought and he didn't totally understand why he couldn't do things like his friends were doing.”

- Leah Peters-Doud