{"id":371,"date":"2015-03-08T20:36:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T20:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/after-cancer\/?p=371"},"modified":"2015-04-06T19:15:30","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T19:15:30","slug":"after-transplant-brothers-form-unbreakable-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/after-cancer\/2015\/03\/08\/after-transplant-brothers-form-unbreakable-bond\/","title":{"rendered":"After Transplant, Brothers Form Unbreakable Bond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jude Cobler\u2019s bone marrow transplant changed him physically, by altering his blood type. And emotionally, too, by creating an unbreakable bond with his brother, who helped save his life. For Jude and other cancer patients, a bone marrow transplant is really just the beginning.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"From

From left: Jude, Keith and Joshua Cobler on a recent bike ride in Plano. Photo\/Mark Birnbaum<\/p><\/div>\n

One recent afternoon, the Cobler brothers hopped off their bikes. The wind whipped everything around.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joshua, who\u2019s 16, tried to pat down his little brother Jude\u2019s wild helmet hair. Then, they faced off in a typical sibling contest: Who can throw pebbles farther across a small park in Plano.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u201d they yelled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two boys look different. Older brother Joshua has short curly hair and a thin face. Jude has a straight cut and a round face.<\/p>\n

But, inside, they\u2019re more similar than you could imagine.<\/p>\n

\"Jude

Jude Cobler received chemotherapy — but the chemo didn’t work. Photo\/Courtesy Cobler family<\/p><\/div>\n

Five years ago, Jude was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL. Chemotherapy didn\u2019t work, and he needed a bone marrow transplant. But that wasn\u2019t simple. His dad, Keith, is white. His mom, Boots, is from the Philippines. Being a mixed-race couple poses a challenge. Of the approximately 16 million volunteer donors on the national Be The Match registry<\/a>, just 3 percent identify as mixed race.<\/p>\n

Patients are more likely to have a successful bone marrow transplant when they match someone with a similar ancestry, according to Be The Match.<\/p>\n

Joshua ended up being a match \u2013 he donated his bone marrow to help save his brother\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

The transplant transformed Jude\u2019s body. His blood type changed \u2013 from type A to his brother\u2019s type O blood.<\/p>\n

The transplant also forever changed Jude\u2019s relationship with his brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call my brother Kuya — it means big brother in Tagalog,\u201d Jude says.<\/p>\n

Jude says he looks up to Joshua.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a lot of straight As,\u201d Jude says. \u201cI want to be just like him. I\u2019m going to work as hard as I can to be exactly like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Life-Threatening Complication<\/h3>\n

The two boys are close now, but cancer tested their relationship. Their parents essentially lived at the hospital. Joshua was 12 and barely saw them.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only been within the last few years that my parents found out I was mad at my brother or I was mad at everything that was going on,\u201d Joshua said.<\/p>\n

\"Joshua

Joshua Cobler often visited his younger brother, Jude, in the hospital. Photo\/Courtesy Cobler family<\/p><\/div>\n

Many nights, he cried himself to sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually didn\u2019t like going to the hospital,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cI tried to stay away from it as much as I could. \u2026 If I could I just wouldn\u2019t go. But I had to because I know that my brother was there. \u201c
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jude was 6 at the time. His pain was physical, and life-threatening.<\/p>\n

Days after receiving his brother\u2019s bone marrow, Jude began turning yellow with jaundice. His abdomen swelled taut like a drum.<\/p>\n

One of Jude\u2019s doctors, Victor Aquino, who specializes in bone marrow transplants, gathered Keith and Boots Cobler, along with those involved with Jude\u2019s medical care.<\/p>\n

He told the family that Jude had veno-occlusive disease. It causes blood to pool in the abdomen, which is why it swelled, Aquino says.<\/p>\n

Some people in the hospital started calling Jude the “5 percent kid.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew for [veno-occlusive disease] there was a 5 percent chance of survival sometimes when you get really sick like that,\u201d Aquino says.<\/p>\n

\"Jude's

Jude’s parents Boots and Keith Cobler. Boots kept a journal during Jude’s diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Photo\/Mark Birnbaum<\/p><\/div>\n

The Darkest Moment<\/h3>\n

Veno-occlusive disease is rare, and it\u2019s just one of the many possible complications from a bone marrow transplant. But the disease can be fatal.\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHis liver starts to inflame, and while it inflames he gets these small blood clots in these tiny little veins in the liver,\u201d said Patrick Leavey, one of Jude\u2019s doctors at Children\u2019s Medical Center in Dallas. \u201cAll of a sudden, the liver gets congested and bogged. And it can\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jude\u2019s mom, Boots, kept a journal during his treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday they took out another 1850cc of fluid in his stomach,\u201d she wrote on Jan. 12, 2011. \u201c<\/strong>We haven’t stopped crying and worrying. We have watched our son suffer everyday for a week. Why can’t we just have a smooth bumpy road not a wild bumpy road with uncertainties of where our journey will take us. Why is it that we are getting the 5% of the statistics and not the 95%? \u2026 Many of you have said that God won’t give you any more you can’t handle, but I feel like I’m running on empty now.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jude

Jude drew this picture while in the hospital. Photo\/Courtesy Cobler Family<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cobler family has a deep Catholic faith. For Jude\u2019s dad, Keith, that had always been a source of strength and optimism. Even after chemotherapy didn\u2019t work \u2013 and when Jude\u2019s chances of surviving leukemia dropped from 80 to 20 percent. Even when there was only one possible bone marrow donor.<\/p>\n

This complication, though, was Keith\u2019s darkest moment.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d already threaded the needle two or three times to get to this point,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then it appears like that all is lost at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a drawing Jude did while he was in the hospital, a sort of self-portrait. It\u2019s an outline of a little boy with a black and brown storm cloud hovering in his stomach. Blue rain falls from the waist down and fills the legs like buckets.<\/p>\n

In the boy\u2019s head, above the storm, there\u2019s a rainbow.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Coblers have a deep Catholic faith — a faith that was tested during Jude’s cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Photo\/Mark Birnbaum<\/p><\/div>\n

‘We Really Did Become Closer’<\/h3>\n

After about a month, Jude\u2019s liver started working again. The bone marrow from his brother was settling into his own system, and growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did OK,\u201d said Aquino, one of his doctors. \u201cHe beat lots of odds to make it to where he is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the bond between the brothers was cementing.<\/p>\n

\"Joshua

Joshua Cobler with his brother, Jude. Photo\/Courtesy Cobler family<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAfter he got out of the hospital, we really did become closer,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain how exactly but it is just a feeling I can tell. And I think after you see someone you love about to die and go through these times where you don\u2019t know whether you\u2019ll see them ever again, I think you really have to become closer after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, of course, the boys fight like any siblings.<\/p>\n

But their mom, Boots, says there\u2019s a twist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he would get mad at Joshua, he\u2019ll say something like \u2018I don\u2019t care if you saved my life, I hate you!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of laughter in the years since Jude recovered from leukemia. Still, cancer has left its mark, changing Jude\u2019s personality, his fears, and his dreams for the future.<\/p>\n

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COMING UP<\/h3>\n

A transplant saved Jude Cobler\u2019s life, but it would change him \u2014 and his family \u2014 forever. It\u2019s also shaped Jude\u2019s dreams for the future. Read the final chapter of Growing Up After Cancer<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, meet other North Texans who have survived childhood cancer.
\n<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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