Dane's Story

This is Dane's story as told by his grandmother Denise Pearce.

Dane Richards Pearce is a happy 10-yr-old boy, who will turn 11 in a just a few days, on April 12^th.  He has been eagerly anticipating his birthday for months. However, his birthday plans have been drastically changed.  He began his first day of chemotherapy on Sunday, April 3^rd.  It continues for 10 straight days, and will end on April 12^th, his birthday.  The next few weeks and months, will be the fight of his life.
 

Our family affectionately calls him “Daner”, and here is his story:

Daner is much like many young boys his age, with much of his time spent enjoying  friends and family,  playing video games, Wii, and a heavy dose of sports.  His father, Dane, has been his coach for many of his basketball teams.  He has a very close relationship with his dad, and also with his beautiful and dedicated mother, Jamie.  Most of all, he enjoys MOVIES.  He is a true movie buff and can often quote prolifically from his favorites.  He has a fast-developing sense of humor, and gets a kick out of making us all laugh, and he’s very good at it.  He has a ready smile for all.  He is always pleasant, and his endearing easy-going personality enables him to get along with everyone.  Daner is a Webelos Scout, and a hard-working 5^th grade student at Gold Rush Elementary School.

Daner has a large and close-knit family which includes his parents, one brother, Ty, and three sisters, Halee, Mikayla, and Tali.  He has 25 first cousins, 9 uncles, 9 aunts, 2 sets of grandparents, and 1 great-grandfather!  And they all absolutely ADORE him.  He lives with his family in Parker, Colorado.  A big part of his life is being an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints where he has many friends, teachers, and leaders who also love him dearly.

He loves interacting with his siblings, constantly playing with his brother, Ty, and good-naturedly teasing his sisters, Halee and Miki.  He is a patient and tender brother to his youngest sister, Tali.  Every summer he travels to visit his family in Virginia, where he loves the beach and swimming in the lake.  He loves to eat seafood- even crabs, clams, and sushi!  And we can’t leave out his love for steak, and spicy hotwings.

We cannot say enough about how much we all love and respect him for his goodness, his caring and soft-spoken ways, and his many admirable personal characteristics which are a stellar example to his many cousins and friends.

On March 31^st, Daner’s innocent and happy-go-lucky 10-yr-old world turned upside-down.

He had been feeling weak and looked quite pale for some time, but this was attributed to trouble with his tonsils which had been repeatedly swollen and were scheduled to be taken out later this month.   But Dane became worried as Daner got paler and seemed lethargic. So he had his doctors do complete blood work, just to make sure everything was all right.  Thursday morning I was called and asked to come over immediately to tend the other children.  Dane and Jamie had just received a call from their doctor.   She told them to come quickly and she would not discuss anything over the phone.  We all knew this was not a good sign.

I hurried over and was met by a happy, smiling Daner, who gave me his usual big hug, and as I squeezed him tight, I knew he was completely unaware that in a few short minutes he was most probably going to receive some bad news.  Little did I know how very bad the news would be.  I sadly watched them pull away, hoping for the best.  It was not to be.

They returned shortly, and as they burst into the house, the magnitude of that bad news was written all over all three of their faces.  I saw Dane’s face contorted with pain. Jamie’s face was tear-filled and anguished.  And little Dane’s face was a picture of absolute despair, and he broke into uncontrollable sobs.  It was a brutal moment, a nightmare unfortunately to be relived and remembered over and over again.  “Little Daner has leukemia!”  It took every ounce of strength Dane had to force the horrible words from his mouth.  I could tell he was struggling to hold it together for Daner’s sake, as well as his wife and the other children.  The shock was overwhelming.  We all burst into tears and cried and cried and cried some more.   We tried to hold each other up.  As we sat on the couch and just held our precious grandson, Dane tried to help everyone’s reaction by explaining how excellent the doctors and facility was where he would go for treatment.  Daner repeatedly expressed his fears, “I want the doctors to get this out of me!”  “I’m afraid the doctors will mess up!”  It was painful to see his fear and for all of us to feel so helpless at that moment.  However, before they left for the hospital, Dane gave little Daner a Priesthood blessing.  It was a beautiful blessing.  We began to calm down and help him get packed up.

They had only a few minutes to pack his bags and head to the Children’s Hospital, where he was told he would begin further tests and stay for 4 or 5 days.   The next two days were horrendous for Daner and his family.  They were filled with many thorough lab tests and procedures, many of them uncomfortable and even painful.  He had more blood work done, a spinal tap, X-rays, and worst of all, a bone marrow biopsy. This was taken from his hip bone.

We learned there were different kinds of leukemia, and the most common in children under the age of 15 was called A.L.L.  This type had an excellent prognosis; a curability rate of 95% or higher.  We hoped and prayed for this to be his diagnosis.  But again, it did not turn out to be.  He was diagnosed with A.M.L., with a lower curability rate.   The treatment for this type requires him to remain in the hospital almost entirely for 6-8 months.  The bad news kept piling up, one thing after another, and it took a heavy toll on Daner, his parents, siblings,  and all of his extended family and friends.

However, there is still much room for optimism, and Dane explained to us the procedures that would take place.  He has the very best doctors possible and is in a topnotch facility in the Children’s Hospital in Aurora.  His experienced and nationally-renowned medical team is very positive and optimistic. They have much success with cases like these.  We are awaiting the results of lab tests which will assign him a genetic code, placing him in a low-risk or higher-risk category.  Again, we hope and pray for a low-risk result.  

If so, Daner will receive four sessions of chemotherapy, each given over a ten day period, and requiring him to stay in the hospital for 4-6 weeks.  Then if he has not gotten a serious infection, or suffered other side effects, he can go home for one week, returning  for the second treatment, etc. until he has completed the four sessions.  The first treatment will be the worst for him to get through.  After each treatment, he has another bone marrow biopsy, and other thorough lab work to determine the effectiveness of the chemotherapy.  If everything goes as described, it would be the best case scenario and he would be cured at the end of these treatments.  Otherwise, if he has a genetic code placing him in a higher-risk category, or if at any time after one of the chemo sessions the bone marrow biopsy, or other tests, show the chemicals are not working properly, he will have to have alternative treatment, such as a bone marrow transplant. 

 This has been an overload of shocking information hitting a little 10-yr old’s psyche.  I know he feels very scared, and in his own words, “panicky”.  He certainly is at a low point right now, both physically and mentally.  But he is trying his best to be brave, and brace for what will be a difficult, difficult upcoming few weeks and months. In about 10 days he will start losing all of his hair, but he gamely tried to joke about that with his Uncle Kasey on the phone.  That time period will be where he is the very lowest, the most vulnerable and most susceptible to infections and sickness, as his immune system will be completely broken down.  He will not be able to be around any children at all, even his siblings. 

There are many obstacles to overcome, but we know that he can do it with all of our help and support.  There has been overwhelming outpouring of love from family, friends, church members, neighbors  and the school community.  There is much help needed, but with many willing hands, much  will be accomplished.

Daner needs, and certainly deserves, everyone’s fervent prayers.  We are praying for his little body to be strengthened to withstand the toxic chemicals which must be administered, and for them to do their job in killing off these cancer cells.  We earnestly hope he will get, and stay, in the low-risk category.  We also pray he will not suffer too much for too long.  His precious family needs our faith and prayers, as well.  

We know that Daner can come through this extremely challenging ordeal to be a stronger more confident person and look back upon this experience as a life-changing, but faith-promoting, trial which he was able to conquer.

WE ALL LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY WHEN WE CAN TELL DANE’S STORY WITH A VERY HAPPY ENDING!