Forced to fight again
As Pavelkas await second child, Sam, 28, mired in second battle with Ewing’s sarcoma
By Jessica Cohea
- jcohea@morrisdailyherald.com
Created: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 5:00 a.m. CDT
Taylor
Pavelka, 2, of Minooka, reads her dad, Sam, a story while he rests and
recovers on the couch from his latest round of chemotherapy. (Herald
Photo by Lisa Pesavento — lpesavento@morrisdailyherald.com)
MINOOKA — Seven years after going into remission following his first
battle with Ewing's sarcoma, Minooka resident Sam Pavelka is now in the
midst of round two with the rare pediatric bone cancer.
"The first thing that popped into my mind was, 'Am I going to make it to
30?'" Sam, 28, remembered thinking June 5, when the cancer was found
for the second time on his spine. The other difficult thought Sam is struggling with is the fact that his
wife, Cheryl, is due to give birth Oct. 9 to their second daughter,
Madelyn. "Mentally, those are the two things that are hardest to deal with," he said.
Sam was first diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma when he was 20 years old, in 2004. Going into his third year as a premed college student, Sam started experiencing some pains in his back. Since he was active in sports and a runner, he thought he may have pulled a muscle. After visiting the emergency room four times for the same pain, however, he asked for a magnetic resonance image (MRI). "They found it," Sam said. "It was as big as a grapefruit."
Luckily, the malignant tumor had not spread anywhere else in the body. It was on his spine. For the next year, Sam went through five rounds of chemotherapy, surgery to remove the cancerous tumor, and 25 radiation treatments. He lost all of the muscle in his legs and couldn't walk for six months. Physical therapy lasted 2 1/2 years.
Sam went into remission at the age of 21. He had regular checkups and body scans for five years.
"After five years, they stopped doing scans because if Ewing's is going to come back, it usually comes back within the first five years," he explained.
For the past two years, Sam was still been going in for checkups, but had not had a scan until June, when he felt an all-to-familiar pain coming back.
"I had just played basketball and golfed. I play hockey regularly, so I thought it was just a muscle pull," Sam said. "The pain went away after a week, but I called my doctor and said 'Can you give me a CT scan just in case?' And then they found it. It was Ewing's again."
This time, Sam will undergo 12 rounds of chemotherapy, but the drugs won't be as strong. Each round is three weeks long. For two weeks, he will have chemo once a day, Monday through Friday. The third is a week to recuperate.
He will have surgery again, as well, in between rounds four and five. The tumor is again on his spine, in the vicinity of the last one.
"My body doesn't react well to any drug. I'm very sensitive to drugs, so when I get the chemo, I'm very sick. I dread it," Sam said.
Sam lost 70 pounds in his first battle with cancer, a hazardous amount for his athletic build to withstand. So far, he has only lost three pounds, but he has lost his hair.
"It's been really stressful in the house," Sam said. "Cheryl has to do all the cooking and cleaning. She has to take care of me. She has to take care of (our 2 1/2-year-old daughter) Taylor, and a lot of time Taylor isn't the most cooperative," Sam said.
"We argue back and forth about who's got it worse," he went on jokingly. "She argues that being pregnant takes a lot out of her, but I argue that I'm sicker." Cheryl said she is definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore, but isn't sure if she's ready to have two kids yet.
Both Sam and Cheryl are teachers. He switched from premed school to pursuing a teaching degree after being diagnosed with cancer because he "didn't want to go into a hospital ever again."
Sam now teaches integrated science and geology at Minooka Community High School, while Cheryl is a first-grade teacher in the Oswego school district.
"I love working at the high school," Sam said. "I have a great group of kids."
With the diagnosis and pregnancy, however, Sam and Cheryl will be taking time off of work. Sam will try to make it to work during his off-weeks from chemotherapy, but Cheryl will be off the first semester of school.
"We deferred our student loans and did as much as we can, but grocery bills and trips to the hospital and paying for parking at Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago is really expensive," Sam said.
To help the Pavelka's, a friend of the family, Erica Martinez, has put together a Culver's Night at the Culver's restaurant in Minooka. The event will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23, in the restaurant at 2063 Ridge Road.
Ten percent of Culver's sales from that evening will be donated to the Pavelka family, Martinez said. There will be donation buckets on the counters for donations from open to close that day, too.
"She's in a high-risk pregnancy, he's battling for his life, and they have the sweetest little girl," Martinez explained. "I just thought, 'What can I do to help?'" She said she thought something like this would help them more than her first idea of preparing them dinner every night.
"I hope everybody knows it's going towards medical bills and I'm not going to be taking a vacation with it," Sam said about the donations he will receive from the Culver's Night.
"We are very, very grateful to Erica and anybody who's involved in the fundraiser," Cheryl said. "The one positive thing I would say that comes out of anything like this is that you really realize how much people care about you and how awesome your friends are."
Both Sam and Cheryl said they felt guilty when people started donating to them and stressed they do not want anyone to feel obligated to do so."That's the last thing we want," Sam said.
Martinez said Steven's Silk Screening & Embroidery in Yorkville will be donating T-shirts for family and friends to wear that evening with "Team Pavelka" printed on them.
A fundraising website has been set up for the Pavelkas. Anyone wishing to donate can visit www.giveforward.com/pavelkafamilymedicalexpenses to do so. The fundraising goal has been set at $50,000.
Sam was first diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma when he was 20 years old, in 2004. Going into his third year as a premed college student, Sam started experiencing some pains in his back. Since he was active in sports and a runner, he thought he may have pulled a muscle. After visiting the emergency room four times for the same pain, however, he asked for a magnetic resonance image (MRI). "They found it," Sam said. "It was as big as a grapefruit."
Luckily, the malignant tumor had not spread anywhere else in the body. It was on his spine. For the next year, Sam went through five rounds of chemotherapy, surgery to remove the cancerous tumor, and 25 radiation treatments. He lost all of the muscle in his legs and couldn't walk for six months. Physical therapy lasted 2 1/2 years.
Sam went into remission at the age of 21. He had regular checkups and body scans for five years.
"After five years, they stopped doing scans because if Ewing's is going to come back, it usually comes back within the first five years," he explained.
For the past two years, Sam was still been going in for checkups, but had not had a scan until June, when he felt an all-to-familiar pain coming back.
"I had just played basketball and golfed. I play hockey regularly, so I thought it was just a muscle pull," Sam said. "The pain went away after a week, but I called my doctor and said 'Can you give me a CT scan just in case?' And then they found it. It was Ewing's again."
This time, Sam will undergo 12 rounds of chemotherapy, but the drugs won't be as strong. Each round is three weeks long. For two weeks, he will have chemo once a day, Monday through Friday. The third is a week to recuperate.
He will have surgery again, as well, in between rounds four and five. The tumor is again on his spine, in the vicinity of the last one.
"My body doesn't react well to any drug. I'm very sensitive to drugs, so when I get the chemo, I'm very sick. I dread it," Sam said.
Sam lost 70 pounds in his first battle with cancer, a hazardous amount for his athletic build to withstand. So far, he has only lost three pounds, but he has lost his hair.
"It's been really stressful in the house," Sam said. "Cheryl has to do all the cooking and cleaning. She has to take care of me. She has to take care of (our 2 1/2-year-old daughter) Taylor, and a lot of time Taylor isn't the most cooperative," Sam said.
"We argue back and forth about who's got it worse," he went on jokingly. "She argues that being pregnant takes a lot out of her, but I argue that I'm sicker." Cheryl said she is definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore, but isn't sure if she's ready to have two kids yet.
Both Sam and Cheryl are teachers. He switched from premed school to pursuing a teaching degree after being diagnosed with cancer because he "didn't want to go into a hospital ever again."
Sam now teaches integrated science and geology at Minooka Community High School, while Cheryl is a first-grade teacher in the Oswego school district.
"I love working at the high school," Sam said. "I have a great group of kids."
With the diagnosis and pregnancy, however, Sam and Cheryl will be taking time off of work. Sam will try to make it to work during his off-weeks from chemotherapy, but Cheryl will be off the first semester of school.
"We deferred our student loans and did as much as we can, but grocery bills and trips to the hospital and paying for parking at Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago is really expensive," Sam said.
To help the Pavelka's, a friend of the family, Erica Martinez, has put together a Culver's Night at the Culver's restaurant in Minooka. The event will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23, in the restaurant at 2063 Ridge Road.
Ten percent of Culver's sales from that evening will be donated to the Pavelka family, Martinez said. There will be donation buckets on the counters for donations from open to close that day, too.
"She's in a high-risk pregnancy, he's battling for his life, and they have the sweetest little girl," Martinez explained. "I just thought, 'What can I do to help?'" She said she thought something like this would help them more than her first idea of preparing them dinner every night.
"I hope everybody knows it's going towards medical bills and I'm not going to be taking a vacation with it," Sam said about the donations he will receive from the Culver's Night.
"We are very, very grateful to Erica and anybody who's involved in the fundraiser," Cheryl said. "The one positive thing I would say that comes out of anything like this is that you really realize how much people care about you and how awesome your friends are."
Both Sam and Cheryl said they felt guilty when people started donating to them and stressed they do not want anyone to feel obligated to do so."That's the last thing we want," Sam said.
Martinez said Steven's Silk Screening & Embroidery in Yorkville will be donating T-shirts for family and friends to wear that evening with "Team Pavelka" printed on them.
A fundraising website has been set up for the Pavelkas. Anyone wishing to donate can visit www.giveforward.com/pavelkafamilymedicalexpenses to do so. The fundraising goal has been set at $50,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment