Baseball season’s underway – and after what he’s been through, Quinn couldn’t be more excited! Near the end of last season, no one was quite sure if 12-year old Quinn would ever be playing baseball again. Fast forward to today, and you will see Quinn taking practice with his team and working toward the goal of complete recovery.

Last fall, Quinn pitched three games straight in a baseball tournament – which is not unusual – and mentioned his elbow was a little sore. You would expect it to be, under those circumstances, and that is just what Quinn’s grandparents thought. A few days later, when he began complaining of extreme pain and developed a fever and nose bleeds, they headed to the hospital.

Unable to perform an MRI because Quinn could not straighten his arm, doctors relied on several other tests to determine what was happening. Several days later, the family was on their way home from Quinn’s bone marrow test and his grandpa, Joe, received a call from the doctor.

“We were almost home – it’s a long drive – and they wanted us to turn around and come back for the results. I pulled over and convinced them to tell me right there,” explained Joe. In the car with them were Quinn’s grandma, Clarice, and his older sister.

“I told everyone right there in the car that the doctor said Quinn had leukemia. Not the ideal place, but we were together. It really hit us all hard,” he continued. They went home, packed what Quinn would need for a week and headed right back to the hospital.

Treatments began almost immediately. So did the travel expenses. A social worker at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago introduced them to Compass to Care. With your help, Compass to Care has been able to provide much needed relief by covering gasoline and parking expenses for Quinn’s trips to treatment.

“Your help has really helped our family very much. It makes it all easier,” Joe said.

In addition to dealing with the unexpected travel expenses, Joe was surprised to learn there were so many facets to treating leukemia. He was also amazed at how efficient the hospital doctors and staff were at administering everything.

“I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of treatments. He had a bad reaction to the PEG chemo, and so they split it up into 3 shots. He takes a different chemo pill at home, then there’s steroids. He had a couple of spinal taps that caused bad back pain – so bad he didn’t want to walk. He has only had two transfusions, thankfully,” Joe shared, stating these were just some of Quinn’s treatments.

As with most cancer treatments, there can be side effects, some worse than others. Joe said that unfortunately Quinn experienced most of the bad ones, resulting in more trips back and forth to the hospital.

“We are coming to the light at the end of the tunnel with the treatments, although there is quite a road to go. His energy level has come around, even though his chemo sessions still really take it out of him,” Joe said.

Quinn has also been undergoing physical therapy to regain normal use of his arm. It took almost three months before he could straighten it, and although it is not back to where it was, it is well enough to allow him to begin practicing with his baseball team.

“Again, thank you so much! There are a lot of people down on their luck, and Compass to Care’s help takes the burden off for people. I know we really appreciate it,” Joe said.