On Valentines Day of 2005 Josef woke up with a swollen right eye lid. At first Stephanie thought that it was only Pink Eye, but after a week of treating it as such we noticed that the swelling was getting worse. We made an appointment for him to get this taken care of. At first we were told it was probably a dermoid cyst and that it was a good idea that he should get a CT on March 3rd.

On February 28th Josef woke up with a high fever and complained of pain in his eye. Stephanie immediately brought him to the hospital. He had a CT done and we met with Dr. Joly who was covering that day. He originally believed that the mass was not a cyst, but a Neurofibroma.

On March 3rd Josef had an appointment to see Dr. Joly and discuss the course of action. He suggested surgery to remove the mass. The surgery to do this took place at the University Hospital of Cleveland and was treated as an outpatient procedure. Surgery went well and Josef's eye recovered amazingly.

March 18, 2005 Dr. Joly phoned and gave us the news that the mass was not benign and had to be further tested. 3 days later we met Dr. Joly again for Josefs post-op visit, and the next day Dr. Joly called with the latest pathology reports. He stated that the mass was a Rhabdomyosarcoma. Rhabdomyosarcoma is a fast-growing, highly malignant tumor that accounts of over half of the soft tissue sarcomas in children. We weren't home for more than 30 minutes when Dr. Alexander called.

On March 24th Josef was admitted to Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital where we met with Josef's Oncology Team (Dr. Alexander, Ann Watts RN, CNP, and Social Worker Sharon McClain). They spoke at length with us about their course of action to get Josef better.

We are told that during his 2 day stay that he'd have a CT of the chest, MRI of the orbit, a Bone-Scan, Bone Marrow test, Spinal Tap, and have his Mediport put in. At the time Josef started coming down with a slight cough which later became worse. Because Josef had to receive anesthesia and be sedated (Josef had to be intibated for these procedures) for most of the test the concern that his upper respiratory infection would lead to pneumonia. So instead of risking that they rescheduled and released Josef. We were able to spend Easter at home.

The Next Monday on our way back to Rainbow Babies Josef comes down with a fever. When we meet with the doctors and nurses they tell us that we'd have to wait till Wednesday to get the these test done. So we were admitted and spent 2 days watching Star Wars, reading books and getting better.

On March 30th Josef had Surgery to have his mediport placed, bone-marrow extracted and a spinal-tap. The next day he had to be sedated to have his bone-scan and MRI of the right orbit. These procedures went well and without complications.

Friday morning we got the great news that NOTHING spread and that the cancer was only limited to the right eye lid, and that there was minimal cells there if any. Dr. Alexander and Ann Watts CNP also briefed us on what our journey would be like and what we needed to do. Josef has to undergo 6 months of chemotherapy and minimal radiation treatment in the second phase. We will keep you posted on his progress!

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