From the Beginning......

Many have asked for a timeline of events that led to Drew's diagnosis of cancer. We are so thankful for Drew, and we are thankful for the friends and family that have showered this precious young man with love and prayer. In an attempt to answer everyone's questions...we begin.



Drew has been complaining of a backache for about 10 weeks now. At first, we thought it was a sports injury. He is active in baseball, football, and of course, WWF with his brothers:-) And, the pain was not a constant thing. Neither was it a terrible pain. We considered that he may have a pinched nerve. Four weeks ago, after the pain kept getting progressively worse, we decided that we'd take him to our doctor---maybe he needed therapy. Maybe it was a muscle tear. Our family doctor examined Drew and seemed puzzled. She told us Drew had a great range of motion. He could move every direction she asked him to. She explained that she didn't think Drew had any spine problems, but just to be sure, she sent him for an x-ray. We went in the next morning to get the results. She opened the file and puzzled said, "Well, looks like Drew may have a possible fracture to the 9th rib on his right side." I was really confused, because as far as we could remember, Drew hadn't had any incidents that could have caused a broken rib. Our doctor's suggestion was to do a CT scan to confirm the broken rib. So, as soon as I left her office I went back to the lab that did Drew's x-ray. They did the CT at 4:00 p.m. and the radiologist told us that our family doctor would follow up with us at our next appointment. We went on home, and since Drew was in pain, he went to bed after supper. At midnight, the radiologist called us and explained that his CT had just been read and that Drew's right lung had a moderate hemothorax. Their initial thought was that he had broken the rib, and the broken rib had punctured the lung. So, we were asked to bring him to the hospital immediately. We got to the hospital at 12:30 a.m. on March 12th.