TODD, 3, HAS HAD A TOUGH SIX WEEKS OF CANCER TREATMENT
TODD, 3, HAS HAD SIX WEEKS OF GRUELLING TREATMENT IN HOSPITAL
A THREE-YEAROLD boy battling cancer is back home in Burton after undergoing gruelling treatment during a 44-day stay in Manchester.
Jade Faulkner said her son Todd are home again, surrounded by his loved ones, after spending six-anda-half weeks undergoing proton therapy.
The youngster has had 28 treatments, general anaesthetics and four hospital stays as he completed the latest part of his journey to recovery.
Chatty Todd has been diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in soft tissue and mainly affects children.
His family have had to live in a hotel in Manchester throughout his latest round of treatment, which started in August and finished at the end of last month, but now they are back in Burton before Todd starts his next lot of chemotherapy.
Jade, 26, said: “Todd is doing really well. Hopefully we should’ve done the big part of it by November time.
“He’s been alright. He was frustrated at first in Manchester but then he got into a routine.
“He had steroids to help his voice, which had been affected by the treatment, and got a bit of ‘roid rage’, but when they reduced his dosage he became more himself.”
One particularly upsetting g moment for Jade and partner Sam Cook, also 26, was when the youngster’s hair started falling out as a result of his treatment.
It broke his parents’ hearts s when he asked if he could “put t it back on”.
Now he has his eyebrows ws back and some hair coming ng through, but with two weeks of chemotherapy at Birmingham m Children’s Hospital starting next ext week, Jade said they do not want ant to get ahead of themselves.
She said: “His eyebrows have ave now grown back, but while he was in Manchester, he couldn’t have e all his chemotherapy, as it would ould react to his other treatment.
“He’ll have the three drugs when he goes back to Birmingham and we’re not sure if one is the drug that made his hair fall out more.
“We don’t want to say too soon. “We’re just taking in the facts of everything and trying to understand it.
“You have to stay level headed. It gets all confusing if you let yourself
get worked up about it.
“You’ve got to be professional, in a way, or he’ll sense something is wrong. You just have to crack on and do it.
“There was good and bad with the stay in Manchester taking place during the Covid outbreak, as nobody was working, so there were always pe people knocking about to give lift lifts to the hospital ap appointments. “As everyone’s gone back to work now, it’s been harder in t that respect. “It was annoying that only one parent could go to appointments, but we understand why.” After his last lot of chemotherapy, Todd will have some more scans before getting six months of maintenance treatment.
This involves tablets that he can take orally at home – which means no more regular hospital visits for the family.
Jade will give him his medication, but community nurses will still be visiting the house to take his blood and other medical checks.
Jade and Sam first realised something was wrong with Todd when he developed a lump under his chin.
They first noticed the lump in January and called 111 for advice.
Medics said they should get him to a doctor to get checked out.
They thought it might be a swollen lymph node, but as the lump kept getting bigger, they kept returning to the doctor until they were sent to hospital for antibiotics.
Eventually, Todd was referred to the oncology department at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the family received the devastating news that he had cancer in April.
While the family were enduring the heartache of Todd’s devastating diagnosis, a Justgiving page was set up to help the little boy through, which raised nearly £3,000.
Jade said: “I’d like to say a big thankyou really. I’ve got quite a lot saved, so I can take Todd on holiday once he has not got the wires.
“I can decorate the bedroom for him and we got him treats while we were in Manchester. “I couldn’t believe how generous everybody was.”
We’re just taking in the facts of everything and trying to understand it. You have to stay level headed.
Jade Faulkner