Chapter 7: Life is Fine…for a While

From Take Care of My Child…for a While by Joyce Sawyer

“Mom, I need someone my age to play with. I’m the only little kid in this family.”

“That’s right.”

“Why don’t you adopt a brother for me?”

“Just like that.”

“Sure.”

“It isn’t that easy.”

But soon Ricky had found a picture of a cute little seven-year-old boy in the Holt newsletter from Eugene, Oregon. He seemed just right. He was a Korean/black combination. While Ricky was thinking up a name for his new brother, I was writing for more information and for the necessary forms to fill out. It was only later we realized we could not carry through with our requests.

Now for a while, life was fine. Ricky began to gain weight and get his strength back. His hair grew in and he seemed like the old Ricky again.

Then one afternoon in April [1975], Ricky showed me some small blisters along his ribs. It was spring and he had been rolling in the grass, so I didn’t think too much about it. But the next morning there were more blisters and they itched.

I called Dr. Serota and told him Ricky had these funny blisters on his chest, sort of like poison ivy. He said he’d like to have a look at him and if they turned out to be anything unusual we would have to stay a day or two. So—I packed a little suitcase with a couple of books for Ricky and my knitting and one change of underwear.

Dale said he would go with us this time and see that we got settled.

After Ricky was seen, Dr. Serota suggested we leave right away for Stanford Children’s Hospital. He said, “It looks like Ricky has herpes zoster, the same family as chicken pox, only it lives in the nerve trunk and is very dangerous to cancer patients sine they have no resistance.”

I thought, Just those few blisters?

Stanford was experimenting with a new drug, Interferon, and it might stop the spread of the disease. Without this drug, it could go to the brain or other organs. It had already been fatal to four children at Stanford that spring.

I signed the paper to start this new drug, even though the side effects were unknown. What choice did I have, really?

Because of the extreme danger to the other children with cancer, Ricky and I were put in strictest isolation. We wore gowns and masks and everyone coming in to the room did the same. Everything came in on disposable plates or containers.

We had a TV to help pass the time, but this drug program took eight days. I began to make up games, like rolling up socks into a ball and throwing them at the waste basket, or playing catch with them. We also drew pictures and made up silly stories.

I had to wash clothing by hand, since I had just brought enough for two days. Ricky didn’t feel at all sick, and after the third day, no new blisters appeared, so I asked if we could go outside. Covered in our masks, gowns, and surgical gloves, we carefully crawled out the window. We weren’t allowed in the halls.

It was fun running around on the lawn. Of course, we couldn’t touch anything that another child might handle. We were very careful.

The time still dragged by. I wondered how the POWs ever made it for two years in isolation, but then they weren’t cooped up with an eight-year-old boy.

Chapter 8 to follow