BLife&Communityy D e c e m b e r 3 , 2 0 1 0THE COMMUNITY NEWS

w w w. c o m m u n i t y - n e w s . c o m

Bring the family by First National Bank Weatherford to make a donation to a hometown

charity through December 20.

220 Palo Pinto Street • Weatherford, Texas 76086817-598-4900 • www.fnbweatherford.comEQUAL HOUSING

LENDER

MEMBER

FDIC

!"#$%&'()#')*#'!)++*%$,-.../$%01'2334

!"#$%&'()#%*%+#,#-.#/%012%3101!"#$#%&'($"&)*+$*&,-#.&/01123011

HAYDEN’S STORY! Youngster will celebrate one year anniversary of being cancer free this FebruaryBy Dominic GenettiThe Community News

The nurse came out of the room, looked her in the eye and said, “You need to call

your husband.”

At that moment, she knew something was wrong.

By the end of the day, Elizabeth and Matthew Head were admit-ting their son, Hayden, to Cook Children’s Hospital. He had just been diagnosed with cancer.

“Not just little cancer. Big can-cer. Bad cancer,” Elizabeth said. “Suddenly my life had really changed.”

It had all started about six months earlier. Hayden, then a 3-year-old toddler, was having pains in his right side. He couldn’t hop on one foot and sometimes when he laid down he’d be in agony.

“He just complained and would hold his right side,” Elizabeth recalled.

Doctor visits and medicines didn’t work either. Hayden was in pain and it just couldn’t be stopped. They would come and go and at times seemed to be fad-ing, but in a period of six months Hayden had about three major epi-sodes that caused Elizabeth to be more assertive with doctors.

“My gut was telling me it was something bad. I knew something was wrong,” Elizabeth said. “I per-sisted and dug in my heels.”

The worried mother pushed for more examinations and scans. Still nothing big was coming up that could have resulted in her son’s pain. But she didn’t stop there. Elizabeth was doing all that she could so doctors would discover something.

“I’m not crazy. I don’t want something to be wrong with my child, I’m telling you something’s wrong,” she told the doctors.

Elizabeth watched closely and began sending daily reports over a two-week period to Hayden’s doc-tor. Good days, bad days, small doses of pain, large doses of pain; anything that Hayden went through she wanted the medical personnel to document it thoroughly.

Finally she pushed for a CT scan.

“I had to ride ‘em,” Elizabeth said. “I knew whatever I was get-ting wasn’t enough.”

She can only remember bits and pieces from that day, the day her son was diagnosed with cancer. All this time she knew something was just not right. And while her mother’s intuition was confi rming the bad news, Elizabeth was still hoping and praying for everything to be okay.

SPECIAL TO THE COMMUNITY NEWS

Hayden Head got to meet famous chef Paula Deen in Washington, D.C. It was all possible through the Make A Wish Foundation.

That’s when she saw Hayden’s abdomen being examined. That was moments before the nurse walked out of the room and told her to call Matthew.

“You could tell the mood in the room changed,” Elizabeth said with tears in her eyes. “I could see it in the (nurse’s) face.”

Two of Hayden’s uncles arrived at the hospital and kept him distracted while Elizabeth and Matthew met with the doctor. The diagnosis was neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system that can start in the neck, chest, pelvis or abdomen.

“I don’t know how long we sat there,” Elizabeth said. “It seemed like forever.”

Now it was time to start treat-ment. Rounds of radiation and chemotherapy were only part of Hayden’s journey. Matthew began to ask questions and try to com-fort his family. Elizabeth was at a loss. She didn’t know what to think. A family friend had a daugh-ter go through the same situation and survive, but at that moment Elizabeth was scared; scared at the fact that her baby boy could die.

“I knew how bad neuroblasto-ma was, how aggressive,” she said. “I wasn’t preparing a funeral in my head, I was just scared he was going to die.”

Eventually she wiped away her tears and began to go through the battle with her son. She turned the power of prayer onto herself and to Hayden, but she didn’t dare use the term cancer to her now 4-year-old son. She put it in his terms, not to lighten the situation, but at least make him understand better.

“You don’t have control,” she said. “It’s all in God’s hands.”

Hayden had “tumor bugs” and the only way to make those tumor bugs go away was to go through the treatment he was going through. Including the many surgeries, the

DOMINIC GENETTI/THE COMMUNITY NEWS

Hayden Head, a kindergartener at Trintiy Christian Academy, will celebrate being cancer free in February. He is a sur-vivor of neuroblastoma, cancer of the nervous system.

loss of his hair and random daily struggles, but when all was said and done, his mother kept telling him, everything was going to be better.

“There’s still a little bit of tumor bugs left, but the doctors are work-ing really hard,” she’d tell her son.

Meanwhile, during all of his treatment, Hayden got a visit from the Make A Wish Foundation. Hayden could have anything he wanted. He and Elizabeth began thinking of different things he could do. Everything from Disney

World to seeing how tractors are made. But Hayden wanted some-thing different. He wanted to meet Paula Deen, the famous chef.

The wish came after Hayden spent many days in the hospital watching her on TV.

“You run out of stuff you can watch on TV,” Elizabeth said. “You can only watch SpongeBob so many times.”

So they watched Paul’s cooking show. And Hayden became a quick fan.

“His wish was to meet Paula,” Elizabeth said. “He just grew a lovefor this grandmotherly, outgoing woman.”

In addition to his wish, Hayden’s treatments were beginning to wind down. It wouldn’t be long before his radiation and chemotherapy would be done, not to mention thesurgeries. As that time grew near, Elizabeth increased her prayerful relationship with God.

“God has been faithful to us,” she said.

When everything was complete, she asked The Almighty to sign off on Hayden’s treatment. A small sign to show that everything was done.

“I want you to put a smiley face,” she prayed.

Just before Hayden went intohis fi nal surgery, the doctor needed to make marks on his little body. Instead of the typical blue marker with dotted lines and circles, the doctor came in with black Sharpieand drew smiley faces.

“This is it, this is what I prayed for,” Elizabeth told herself just before the surgery. “I’m not scared anymore.”

Later that February, Hayden was offi cially in remission.

But there was one more thingleft to do.

Not long after being cancer free, Hayden and his family fl ew to Washington, D.C. He got his wish.He met Paula Deen.