MANHATTAN, IL — There are days, Kaylee Blevins says, when being the mother of a 3-year-old cancer patient can almost become unbearable.
For almost two years, cancer has been a part of the daily routine of the Manhattan mother and her husband, Doug. The couple’s son, Wyatt, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was just 1 after Kaylee said she sensed that something was wrong.
Even when doctors tried to convince her that cancer wasn’t what was wrong with Wyatt — saying it was likely something related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other illnesses that children deal with – a motherly instinct kept telling Kaylee Blevins that the issue was more serious.
Something in Kaylee’s gut told her that Wyatt has leukemia and so she kept pushing doctors to do more tests, hoping against everything she was wrong. Finally, an x-ray showed that Wyatt’s stomach was backed up and as soon as Kaylee and Doug reached the emergency room, doctors said that Wyatt had to be airlifted to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago because his body was no longer producing blood.
That moment, and a hemoglobin reading of 2.1, was when cancer officially entered the picture.
“It made me mad because I’m his mom,” Blevins told Patch of the frustration she felt in fighting doctors. “I live with him and our job as parents is to be their advocate because they can’t do that and protect them. Doctors are supposed to listen to you and even if they don’t agree. They work for us, and it made me mad that I had to push so hard for someone to finally listen.”
After undergoing blood transfusions all night on that September evening in 2021, Wyatt has undergone two surgeries and has undergone chemotherapy ever since. Living with cancer has been not only difficult for Wyatt, but for his parents and his sister, who is now 6.
The first nine or 10 months were the worst, Blevins said, as Wyatt underwent intense frontline treatments for his cancer. He continually had strong, toxic chemotherapy drugs pumped into his system to attack the cancer. But while the drugs tackle the cancer, she said, they also destroy healthy cells at a critical time when kids are still growing.
The treatments caused Wyatt to lose his hair and shed weight, while also stripping him of his energy and muscle development. All of that began to take its toll on the family, which watched as Wyatt fought that but struggled with obstacles of their own.
“It’s like non-stop,” Blevins said on Friday. “When you have young kids, there’s already a lot on your plate and you’re stressing out. You’re always on your toes and then you add cancer to the mix, and it adds 10 times the intensity to that.”
Although Kaylee and Doug got used to the challenges, including having to take Wyatt to the emergency room every time he developed a fever, they always tried to stay positive. With a healthy daughter to care for in addition to Wyatt, the couple knew that they had to be strong for both of their children.
She called the balancing act “very heavy and kind of suffocating” as they knew that both of their children were looking to Kaylee and her husband for answers – even on the days when there were none.
On the worst days when Kaylee’s mind would go to dark places and when she would find herself on the bathroom floor in tears, she found support from a Facebook community in Wyatt’s Warriors, a Facebook group that includes parents of childhood cancer patients and supporters. Sometimes, Blevins says the weight of being both a parent and an advocate for children’s cancer research became too much.
But in that online community, Kaylee said she found support not only for her but for Wyatt’s fight. Organizers from the Facebook group have helped to set up a lemonade stand fundraiser, which will take place on June 10 as part of Manhattan’s Heritage Festival.
Village officials worked with the Manhattan Park District and Jay Kelly to find park space around the festival to allow for a space for community members to donate to help Wyatt’s family.
Blevins said that the community support has been huge, especially in dealing with often large hospital bills that always seem to come at the worst time. At times, she said the financial burden can become heavy, but knowing that her Manhattan neighbors and strangers alike have the family’s back means everything.
“I can’t take my son’s cancer away and it affects every aspect of your life, especially financially,” Blevins told Patch. “While trying to stay positive for our family and all of that, we don’t want to get our kids wet with our storm while we’re trying to take care of bills and stuff. We’re trying to not let them see that part and the stress.
“So the fact the community has our back and genuinely wants to put their hands in and help means everything to us.”
For Manhattan Village Trustee Justin Young, the support for Wyatt’s family isn’t surprising. While news can sometimes be slow to travel around town, Young said that once residents learn of a family in need, they are eager to help. The fact the fundraiser coincides with the second annual Heritage Festival, which will bring visitors to town, only helps to draw attention to a worthy cause.
“I feel like we’re a very caring and giving community,” Young told Patch on Friday. “That’s the reason people move to Manhattan — it’s the school districts and they want their kids to be in a good place to succeed and so everyone is sensitive to the children in town.
“If there’s anything someone can do for kids in town, there’s usually a line down the street trying to help support it. It’s a good group (of residents here) and definitely looking out for our kids is top of mind always.”
These days, Wyatt is doing better. He has started to regain the weight he lost and is more of a little boy, Blevins said. He still is on daily chemotherapy treatments in pill form, but he is no longer losing his hair and his color is better as opposed to the pale and yellow tones his parents got used to in the midst of the worst days. He also undergoes regular spinal taps, during which fluid is taken from the spine to check for any cancer in the central nervous system. Chemotherapy drugs are then pumped into the spinal fluid to ensure the cancer does not spread to the brain or central nervous system.
At Lurie, children are not placed under for the procedure, which adds to the agony of Wyatt’s cancer fight. But while the road is still difficult, Kaylee says that she and Doug can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But as difficult as days can be, Kaylee and her husband can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Kaylee and Doug have already had conversations with Wyatt’s oncologists about what the next few months will look like. If all goes according to plan, Wyatt will wrap up cancer treatments in November and his parents look forward to the day when Wyatt can ring the bell at Lurie, indicating that he is finally cancer-free.
In the meantime, Kaylee and Doug continue to fight and try to work with the parents of other childhood cancer patients. Kaylee says she shares her son’s fight as a way to support others, as well as to educate those who may not know what families of cancer patients endure. While sharing information on Facebook isn’t always easy and leaves her feeling vulnerable at times, Kaylee says she knows her efforts to main positivity are paying off.
She always leans on a lesson that her mother taught her early on, reminding her that there are two ways to deal with hardships: To either sit and cry or to make something good come out of the storm they happen to be dealing with.
Kaylee always tries to strive for the latter.
“I hope even after Wyatt rings the bell, that I can reach out to new parents, especially in the beginning because it’s hard and you don’t know the future,” she told Patch on Friday. “Your kid gets cancer and there is no break. The moment they’re diagnosed, they’re going into surgery, they got the PORT put into their chest and they start treatment.
“There’s no time to process it and so if I can help other families, I would love to do it. ..So when this chapter closes, I definitely want to help.”
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