His Fight
Forest was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on October 13, 1999 at the age of four-and-a-half. He began a three-year treatment protocol consisting of high-intensity chemo for the first year followed by two years of maintenance chemotherapy.
With only a few months of maintenance and therapy remaining, Forest had his first non-bone marrow relapse of ALL in May of 2002. Once again, he began another three years of treatment with an extremely intensive first year that included radiation treatments in addition to the chemotherapy.
Just over one year later, in June of 2003, Forest again relapsed. Because the nature of his relapses was not typical, a number of oncologists recommended alternative treatment options. A consultation with a doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center revealed a point of concern regarding Forest’s relapse, and the strong recommendation that Forest undergo a bone marrow transplant as his best chance of survival. But first, Forest had to get back into remission, meaning that yet again, he underwent intensive chemotherapy, including intensive chemotherapy in his central nervous system delivered via spinal taps.
In October of 2003, Forest and family temporarily relocated to New York City so that he could undergo a transplant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. On November 6, 2003 Forest had his transplant by receiving peripheral blood stem cells from an unrelated donor. Forest demonstrated his strength and courage once again, recovered strongly and was discharged after only 13 days of post-transplant hospitalization – a record to everyone’s memory.
As with all transplants, close follow-up care and monitoring was required and the family’s stay in New York continued. Forest kept living his normal, active life and took the numerous doctor visits, tests and hospital stays in stride. He was hospitalized in January for a fever, developed graft versus host disease on his skin in February, and fought through a number of typical ups and downs following the transplant.
After a month of hospital-free living, Forest developed a fever and some lower blood counts in early July. Shortly thereafter, we learned that Forest’s leukemia had returned, this time in his bone marrow. Knowing that a transplant was really the last line of defense against ALL, the news was catastrophic. His doctors posed two options – go home and try to enjoy a little time or undergo a new experimental treatment.
The choice was Forest’s and the doctors posed the options to him for final approval. Forest didn’t just want to try new treatment; he demanded to keep fighting on and wanted the new chemotherapy that very day.
And fight on, he did.
After the first round of chemotherapy, he showed some improvement. He walked determined laps around the hospital floor to help fight the fungal pneumonia he had developed and continued to round two of the chemo. Midway through the second round, while continuing to walk his laps (which he did to please no one except himself), Forest’s pneumonia worsened and his body began to shut down as a result of the chemo’s toxicity, the effects of his long battle and the leukemia cells still occupying his system.
Forest’s spirit never wavered. He never expressed fear or uncertainty and one early Sunday morning, Forest left his family here on earth while in his mother’s arms, next to his father, a priest by his side and his dog on his bed.