{"id":150,"date":"2015-03-10T00:21:54","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T00:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/after-cancer\/?p=150"},"modified":"2015-04-08T17:17:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T17:17:59","slug":"cancer-diagnosis-wont-steal-this-boys-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/after-cancer\/2015\/03\/10\/cancer-diagnosis-wont-steal-this-boys-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Diagnosis Won’t Steal This Boy’s Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

First came the strange lumpy bruises and high fevers. Then a trip to the hospital. Finally, a diagnosis: cancer. Doctors did everything they could to save Jude Cobler, just a kindergartener. But chemotherapy and radiation have a long-term price.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Jude Cobler is a student at All Saints Catholic School in Far North Dallas. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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From time to time, Jude Cobler\u2019s classmates ask him about cancer. When he was 5 years old, some were worried they\u2019d catch it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jude Cobler, left, eats lunch with classmates at All Saints Catholic School in Far North Dallas. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThey ask me: \u2018How do you get cancer?\u2019 And I said: \u2018You don\u2019t. You just have to be really unlucky.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jude laughs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucky or unlucky, Jude is a popular kid. Now 10, the Plano boy has glossy dark hair that falls over his round face. At lunch one day, packing spaghetti and meatballs onto a spork, he\u2019s surrounded by friends at All Saints Catholic School in Far North Dallas.<\/p>\n

His buddy, Mannie Greichi, says what draws kids to Jude aren\u2019t just his jokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because of what he\u2019s been through,\u201d Mannie says.<\/p>\n

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“I wasn’t even sure what leukemia was,” said Keith Cobler, Jude’s father. Photo\/Christina Ulsh<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really nice and he shares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jude’s story begins five years ago, during the first week of kindergarten. Jude had several high fevers. Strange lumpy bruises appeared on his legs. The bruises didn’t look normal.<\/p>\n

Jude\u2019s parents rushed him to Children\u2019s Medical Center at Legacy in Plano.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor said, \u2018Best case: It\u2019s some type of bacterial, viral infection,\u2019\u201d said Jude\u2019s dad, Keith Cobler. \u201cWorst case: It\u2019s leukemia. … I wasn\u2019t even sure what leukemia was.”
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Just 15 minutes later, the bloodwork was back, the diagnosis in.<\/p>\n

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Best case: It\u2019s some type of bacterial, viral infection. Worst case: It\u2019s leukemia.
Keith Cobler describing what Jude's doctor told him about his son's diagnosis.<\/div>
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\"Jude

Jude Cobler during one of his hospital stays at Children’s Medical Center. Photo\/Courtesy Cobler family<\/p><\/div>\n

Aggressive Cancer, Intensive Treatment<\/h3>\n

\u201cMy parents were crying,” Jude recalled.<\/p>\n

“They said, \u2018You have leukemia.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018What\u2019s that?\u2019 Hopefully, it\u2019s not something bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a half century ago, a leukemia diagnosis was a death sentence for kids. The disease starts when the bone marrow creates abnormal white blood cells that divide out of control. These defective cells crowd out healthy ones, making it hard for the body to fight infection and damaging vital organs.<\/p>\n

The type Jude had \u2013 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL — shows up in about 2,500 children each year.<\/p>\n

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Source: Cancer.org<\/p><\/div>\n

Jude\u2019s doctor is Patrick Leavey with UT Southwestern and Children\u2019s Medical Center in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe treatment for ALL is chemotherapy by and large,\u201d Leavey said. \u201cChemotherapy means giving medications, several all at the same time, to essentially kill the leukemia cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not all it kills. Chemotherapy wipes out healthy cells, too \u2013 like hair, nails and intestinal cells.<\/p>\n

Some chemotherapy drugs are taken as pills or through IVs. Others are administered with a spinal tap \u2013 that\u2019s where a long needle is placed into the spinal canal, where leukemia can lurk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe places it hides in all of us is in our spinal fluid,\u201d Leavey said. \u201cSo we give chemotherapy directly into the spinal fluid, which means kids have spinal taps. And Jude had multiple spinal taps throughout the course of his treatment and multiple during that first month.\u201d<\/p>\n

That first month is crucial. And for the vast majority of kids with ALL, modern chemotherapy wipes away all signs of leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cJude went through that first month of chemotherapy,\u201d Leavey said. \u201cBut, unfortunately, he had leukemia at the end of that first month. Which meant his leukemia was declaring itself as being aggressive, as being hard to treat, as being high-risk, and as one that would require much more intensive treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jude Cobler’s leukemia was aggressive and hard to treat, said Dr. Patrick Leavey with UT Southwestern and Children\u2019s Medical Center in Dallas. Photo\/Mark Birnbaum<\/p><\/div>\n

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VIDEO: An Unbreakable Bond<\/h3>\n

\u00a0In this video, meet Jude Cobler and his family. \u201cWe really are brothers for a reason,\u201d says Joshua Cobler, Jude’s brother. \u201cThis true love really does overcome all of the little things that you have to deal with.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n