Paul's history...

Paul was born August 22, 2008 in Birmingham, AL. He was a healthy and beautiful baby---8 pounds and 12 ounces.

4 weeks later, he was in the hospital for extremely high fever. It turned out that he had enteroviral meningitis (which is not bacterial meningitis but more like a really bad cold). We were home from the hospital 5 days later relieved that he was okay.

The next couple of months, he coughed a lot, cried a lot, and was a horrible sleeper. We thought, "We've had 2 really easy babies and here's our tough one." Something didn't feel right but we just thought he was a little harder than our older boys.

On December 13, I woke up with a fever. I went to the "doc-in-the-box" and was prescribed an antibiotic for an ear infection. Paul (who was breastfeeding) started sleeping better almost immediately. I guess the antibiotic was helping him too. Our lives suddenly seemed easier and for the first time since his birth, we starting thinking things were going well.

Then, on January 2 (a Friday night), Chris found a lump on Paul's collarbone. Paul was in no pain and it didn't bother him when we touched it. We took him in that Monday, the 5th, and it was diagnosed as a broken collarbone. I repeatedly said, "We haven't dropped him. He's not rolling over yet. How in the world could he break his bone?" But, I was assured, it was obvious from the x-ray that he had broken it 10-14 days earlier because of how far along in the healing process it was. I was told that 2-3 weeks later the lump would be gone.....the lump was a normal part of the healing process.

We waited 3 weeks before calling to say that no, in fact, the lump was bigger. At this point, we were referred to a bone specialist who could help us find out why the break wasn't healing properly. Within 30 seconds, the bone specialist told us Paul didn't have any broken bones and that we needed to have an MRI or ultrasound done to see about having whatever it was removed.

We met Dr. M., our surgeon, the next morning. He did an ultrasound, determined it was a solid tissue mass, and told us he'd operate 2 days later. So, Feb. 5, Paul had surgery. Dr. M. removed the mass but told us that whatever it was, it looked like cancer and had certainly spread to the tissues around his shoulder (including Paul's pectoral muscle and the tissues surrounding the collarbone).