Year of heartache, day of thanks for boy
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By MARK GUNDERMAN mailto:mark.gunderman@lee.net
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 12:32 PM CST
Last week, Dylan Crabb and his stepfather Bruce Johnson worked all day cleaning the barn to make it ready for a wish come true.
The fact that they were around to work so hard is evidence of fervent prayers answered.
Today they will gather around the Thanksgiving table at their rural Cornell home with Dylan’s mother, Lori Crabb, and her two daughters, Dylan’s sisters Jayde and Morgan, together with several other relatives in the extended family.
They will look back on a year of tremendous suffering, anguish and worry as well as hope and healing with the realization that they have much to be thankful for.
They will start with giving thanks that everyone is alive, and is now healthy enough to put in a good day’s work.
Dylan’s story first made news in the Chippewa Valley last winter when a fundraiser was held at Paradise Shores in Holcombe after he was diagnosed in January with a form of leukemia that spreads through the body like wildfire, usually with fatal results.
The Herald featured the story of Dylan and his mother’s dedication in a Mother’s Day feature.
Then it was Bruce’s turn to be involved in an event that received considerable media attention. He was on the pontoon boat on Lake Holcombe that was struck by a speed boat on Memorial Day weekend.
Bruce was the most seriously hurt of all, being pinned underneath the boat that came to rest on top of the pontoon. His life was very much in jeopardy, too.
Despite five months of anguish over Dylan’s suffering, Lori had enough tears left over for Bruce. Her strength astounds people close to her.
But Dylan and Bruce are both doing better now and looking forward to a new year and a new herd of cattle, thanks to Dylan’s wish and the Children’s Make-a-Wish Foundation.
That’s right. Given one wish, the 14-year-old wished for 33 dairy cows.
Dylan went back to the hospital for tests about three weeks ago and was found to be cancer-free. What’s more, DNA tests showed the bone marrow transplant utilizing umbilical cord stem cells had been successful.
“All of my tests and everything, they’re fine. They said I’m doing better than everyone they’ve seen, of the people who were in the same time as me,” Dylan said.
He wasn’t worried. Sure, he worked all day cleaning the barn with Bruce and was so tired afterwards he couldn’t sleep. But it was a good kind of tired, the kind one gets from a hard day’s work.
Dylan can tell the difference between the fatigue of work and the fatigue of sickness, and because he had been feeling well, he was confident the test results would be good.
“Usually I know I’m sick. You feel it if something’s going on. You’re tired,” he said.
The news wasn’t always so good. Dylan says he was able to accept the diagnosis, which he knew threatened his life. Then came the ups and downs.
He said the low point was hearing about the transplant. Doctors had told him he would need three years of radiation treatments, then he would be “done with it.” Then they discovered the disease was worse than they thought, and a risky bone marrow transplant was his only hope.
Lori remembers it all. Dylan didn’t eat for 60 days, being fed intravenously. At one point, doctors thought he would only live another day.
“We were literally praying that he would take another breath,” she said.
“It was probably harder for her than it was for me,’ Dylan said. “I could accept it.“
Other children in the ward at Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis died, but Dylan hung on, and slowly started to turn the corner.
The biopsy six months after the April transplant the one Dylan was confident about was the turning point for Lori. That’s when tears of anguish started to turn to tears of joy, though she won’t stop worrying for at least three years.
Bruce thought he was going to die when he saw the speed boat riding up on the pontoon and heading right for him.
“I don’t understand how nobody died,” he said.
He came the closest. That speed boat virtually parked on top of him.
He suffered fractures in both pubic bones, a broken hip, fractured neck vertebrae, and today he has three plates in the side of his head repairing a fractured skull.
“I thought I was in better shape than I was,” he said. He realized he was in trouble when they sent for the air ambulance.
When a distraught Lori arrived at the hospital late that night, Bruce’s message to her was, “Take care of our boy.”
Bruce ended up at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls, spending some weeks in the hospital, then in rehabilitation.
Then he went to the Ronald McDonald House where Dylan was staying, still recovering from the transplant.
“Dylan and I were able to convalesce together through the whole ordeal,” Bruce said.
“We were both sick, laying in bed,” Dylan said.
Lori gained a new appreciation for nurses, caring for them both.
“I was mixing medicines every two hours,” she said.
It was almost too overwhelming for her. She not only feared for Bruce’s life after the accident, but feared what it would do to Dylan if Bruce didn’t make it. The two had always been close.
“Bruce was helping keep Dylan alive. I truly believe that that Dylan wouldn’t have made it if Bruce hadn’t,” Lori said.
Bruce is not one to complain. He says he’s come out of it pretty well, though he has a bad leg and sometimes those plates in his head makes him feel like he’s just been punched.
Everyone was home in July for Morgan’s 18th birthday party, though there was a lot of healing and heartache to go through yet. But after a horrendous year, all signs are hopeful for this Thanksgiving.
Giving thanks
Where does one start on a Thanksgiving like this one for the family? They start by being thankful for life itself, and move on to being thankful for each other for all they did during the year of crisis.
Dylan is thankful for being alive.
“And for Bruce being alive. He taught me everything I know farming and everything. He straightened me out. I was a bad kid,” Dylan said.
Bruce is thankful “for being here. For both of us being here. I’ll see people I haven’t seen in a long time and they’ll say, It’s good to see you,’ and I’ll say, It’s good to be here,’ ” Bruce said.
“Every day, every hour of the day I thank God that both of my boys’ made it and that I have my girls to keep the business going,” Lori said. “And the community was right there. The whole way.”
When Bruce landed in the hospital, the small farm was left unattended. Neighbors brought in the hay and fed the calves and looked after the place for them.
Then of course there are all of those people who came to last winter’s fundraiser for Dylan. Paradise Shores was packed for it. And people have continued to be supportive with help, and prayers, and encouraging words.
Then there’s the hospital workers, and medical science itself. Lori is a big fan of stem cells.
“Ten years ago, Dylan wouldn’t have stood a chance,” Lori said.
It seems ironic that in what has undoubtedly been the hardest year in the lives of everyone in the family, they run the risk of the turkey getting cold if they stop to count all their blessings.
But perhaps a sigh of relief and a heartfelt prayer of thanks will suffice for one grateful family.
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