WESLEY STROBEL

#WesleyForTheWin

DREAM TRIP TO HAWAII

Wesley was 5 years old when he was diagnosed with High-Risk Philadelphia-Like B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Before he got sick, he was an extremely active new Kindergartener, who lived life all about keeping up with his older brother Zach. Anything his brother was doing, he wanted to do it too. He loved swimming, riding bikes, playing with friends, the beach, and digging in the sand. He was adventurous and smart. He was full of love and joy.

Getting the news that our son had cancer was shocking and unbelievable. You hear the term cancer all the time but never believe it is going to happen in your family. Wesley got the diagnosis in the emergency room on Halloween 2021. It was just Mom and Wesley there. Siblings weren't allowed in the hospital due to covid, so Dad stayed home with Wesley's brother Zach. Wesley was so incredibly sick by that point, he didn't even notice the tone of the room changed when the doctor came in to deliver the diagnosis. There was never any “it could be, let’s recheck or followup with a specialist”…it was he’s 100% positive for leukemia and he is in critical condition, there’s no waiting and no need for second opinions. We need to start treatment as soon as we hit the ICU. That was it. It was scary and heartbreaking. Just typing out the story triggers PTSD of getting the diagnosis and the start of all of this.

Receiving the diagnosis of cancer has forever changed our family. There is so much medical trauma that Wesley will need to work through, as well as the rest of us working through each of our individual trauma around the words’ cancer and chemo. A lot of new fears, new anxieties, and new emotions were displayed and we've had to figure out how to manage those. This kind of diagnosis also made our family closer, because of the amount of time separated by the walls of the hospital and covid rules, time as a whole unit means so much more to us. Also, the scare what-if's making you as a parent try to never take for granted "life" again. We probably say 'yes' to way more things than we would have before cancer.

We have really tried to live life as close to "normal" as we can. There are time periods where we might be way more strict with rules and isolation and not allowing Wesley to do things with crowds and in public while his blood counts are low. One thing that treatment really took away from Wesley was his love of nature and being able to go swim in bodies of water like lakes due to the risks associated with basically no immune system. We've tried to go on family adventures but Wesley does get tired much faster and many times we find ourselves indoors having rest days on screen time, when we could be out enjoying fun activities. We've taken a lot of local "staycations" but have not done any traveling whatsoever as a family due to his treatment needs.

Being able to CELEBRATE the END of treatment in a big way and taking his very last chemo dose on the beach would be such a significant and meaningful way to close the chapter on this part of our life. We will never forget what Wesley has endured, what we all have endured, but we are so happy to be able to do something like this to give our family the ultimate joy of celebration and also the rest and relaxation we all need after walking this journey for almost 2.5 years. We are so incredibly thankful God has healed our Wesley, and as difficult as this road has been, I think we would all benefit from celebrating joining the NO MO CHEMO club in a fun way.

- Zoe Strobel