a Christmas to remember

Many Christmases have come and gone for Mike and Kay Todd, but this Christmas may be the most memorable ever.

After all, how do you top the gift of life.

The Todd family can celebrate this year’s event knowing that their son, Brett, is in remission following a six month battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The Todds have reason to count their blessings.

“If this had been discovered another week later, Brett wouldn’t be here today,” says Kay.

The past six months have been a roller-coaster ride for the Todds - starting with the unexpected diagnosis of leukemia in late May.

Brett, 23, who spends his free time building and driving demolition cars during the summer and goose hunting during the winter, never suspected anything was wrong. Even after discovering small lumps on his head and a rash on his legs, “I didn’t think much about it.”

“When you live with (Type I) diabetes like I do, things just happen from time to time,” he explains.

It wasn’t until he was at the lake with friends one weekend that one of them commented about his stomach not looking quite right.

“It was one of those things I’d never given much thought to,” Brett says.

What his friends had observed was Todd’s liver and spleen had grown too large in response to the ALL. The decline in his health was sudden and dramatic.

While he felt fine when the weekend began, by Monday his eyesight had begun to deteriorate and “all I wanted to do was sleep 20 hours a day.”

The diagnosis was confirmed at the Scott City Medical Clinic on May 29 and Todd was immediately referred to Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center, Denver, Colo. The Todd’s learned that ALL is one of the fastest developing cancers known.

“Basically, you have five weeks from the time it starts to begin treatment. If you wait any longer you’re dead,” Brett says. “I had it for about two weeks. Even in the time it took us to drive to Denver it was pretty amazing how much it had grown.”

“For the first three days everyone was pretty grim,” Kay notes. “But after that we began to see a few more smiles. You sensed that maybe we’d turned the corner.”

Chemotherapy Begins

Todd underwent intensive chemotherapy treatment during his first month at St. Luke’s. In addition to the cancer, the situation was further compounded by Todd’s diabetes, along with his kidneys trying to shut down. If that wasn’t enough, Todd’s blood count was so low that he had practically no immune system.

Despite the uncertainty and months of chemotherapy, one thing that didn’t change was Todd’s upbeat attitude and his ability to joke around with the staff at St. Luke’s and the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center, where he was receiving his follow-up treatments.

“It was his great attitude that made things so much easier for the rest of us,” Kay says. “He never went around feeling sorry for himself.

During the week of Halloween, Todd stopped into a costume store and bought a Halloween mask “of a goofy looking guy,” Brett says. The mask said, “Kiss me, I’m terminal.”

“Everyone got a kick out of it,” said Brett with a laugh.

Following several months of chemotherapy, and a total of 16 spinal taps the Todds were increasingly optimistic that the ALL might be in remission. Confirmation didn’t come until Dec. 3 when Kay received a phone call from the Cancer Center. At the time, Brett and Mike were on the road to Kirwin Reservoir for goose hunting when she called to share the good news with them.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Brett says. “I had a gut feeling things were going pretty good.”

That doesn’t mean the treatments have come to a halt. Todd will continue with what he refers to as “baby doses” of chemo for another two years.

Todd is particularly excited that the blood hemorrhaging which had seriously affected his vision has improved significantly . He’s gone from 20/1500 vision to 20/50 with glasses. Which means he can once again enjoy his passion for hunting.

Community Support

Just as emotional for the Todd family as Brett’s near-death experience has been the tremendous outpouring of support from the community.

“It’s one thing when you give to others, but you gain a whole new perspective when you’re the recipient,” Kay says. “We’d tell people in Denver about the fundraising events that were being held back home for Brett and they were just amazed. We’d tell them that’s part of being in a small town where everyone knows you.”

Local fundraisers brought in more than $20,000, which have helped with most of the medical bills, in addition to travel and lodging costs that aren’t covered by insurance.

“Brett has had a great support system of family and friends. And getting through this whole thing would have been impossible without the community’s support,” she says. “It makes you grow so much as a person when you go through something like this.”

During one of the benefits held on his behalf, the Todd family gave out plastic bracelets in support of Brett which were inscribed with his derby car number (101) and nickname (Quack Attack).

“It’s pretty neat that we see people still wearing them,” Brett says.

Brett’s slowly regaining his strength and is hopeful of returning to work in the near future. In the meantime, when he has the energy, he assists his father with remodeling a home that he purchased just prior to his leukemia diagnosis.

In addition, goose hunting is on the agenda for Christmas and Todd is already planning to return to the demolition derby circuit this summer.

Just the fact that they can talk of life returning to normal once again is a big step forward for the Todd family.

“We don’t need another Christmas present,” Kay adds. “This is already a fantastic Christmas.”