Team Hero: Drew George

Drew George, a sophomore at Worthington KIilbourne High School and a three sport scholar athlete was diagnosed with Leukemia on November 7, 2013.  He was 15 years old and had just been experiencing fatigue for a couple months so he went for a blood test to see if he might have mono.  He was referred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital on November 7 for another blood test.  The doctor put leukemia and lymphoma at the bottom of the list because he had no other symptoms.  We got a call later that afternoon that Drew had leukemia and we were to be admitted to the hospital that night.  Drew was at home waiting to go to basketball practice but instead we had to come home and tell him he had cancer.  Before we went to the hospital, Drew went to basketball practice to let his teammates know what he was facing and that he really needed their support to fight the battle of his life.  That is the beginning of his journey.

It took a week to figure out what type of leukemia Drew had.  He had a broviac put in and a spinal to start chemo.  His friends visited him every day and then we got the diagnosis, high risk AML type M0.  When Drew was told what he had, he simply said “Let’s get this going.”  Drew   spent Thanksgiving, his 16^th birthday and Christmas in the hospital.  Drew was in the hospital for 52 days the first round of chemo and the chemo didn’t work, his counts did not go back up.  The doctor’s allowed Drew to go home for three days, (a mental health break they called it) December 30 through January 2, so he was to spend New Year’s Eve with his friends.

Round two lasted 26 days and by this time the flu restrictions had been in effect for awhile so it was very hard not to be able to see his friends.  Drew’s echocardiogram showed that his shortening fraction wasn’t as good as it was when he came into the hospital originally.  Doctors associated it with one of the chemo drugs used in the first round.  They had to change his chemo cocktail the 2^nd round because one of the chemo drugs they were going to use also had possible negative heart side effects.  The second round of chemo worked much better and he was able to go home for 12 days in between treatments.  During that time he was able to go sit on the bench with his WKHS basketball team for 1 game.  It was so awesome for him to be part of the team at least one time that season.

Round three lasted 28 days, and again he was not allowed to see his friends.  During this round he went into septic shock and was admitted to the ICU for 2 nights.  Those were the scariest nights in the hospital. We were told that he was lucky to have not been there before now and he never wanted to go back!  A blood clot near his broviac was also detected so he had to start taking Lovenox shots 2x day.  The third round of chemo worked and he was considered in remission! Drew was released on March 9, 2014 just in time to make it to WKHS to be in the varsity baseball team picture.  Baseball is his passion so it was good for him to be able to be a part of the team for the first couple games of the season.  He threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the season opener and they won their first game!

Drew was admitted to the hospital on April 2 to start the final phase of his treatment plan, the bone marrow transplant.  He had chemo and 1 dose of radiation before the transplant.  The transplant took place on April 9, 2014.   Drew’s sister Tori, a senior at WKHS was a perfect 10 out of 10 match for her brother!  A sibling’s chance of being a donor is only 25% so we were so excited to find out she was a perfect match.  Tori was admitted, had surgery and then got to watch her marrow going into Drew later that evening.  It was a very hard recovery, Drew had horrible mouth sores.  He couldn’t eat for a couple weeks and he lost a lot of weight.  Drew was finally able to ring the bell at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, signifying the end of his treatment on May 7, 2014.  Exactly 6 months to the date of being told he had leukemia.

Through all that Drew has been through: bone marrow biopsy’s, CT scans, MRI’s, ultra sounds, echocardiograms, ekg’s, MRV’s, blood and platelet transfusions, ICU, nausea, vomiting, mouth sores and much more, Drew NEVER said “WHY ME?”  He faced each round with determination to beat cancer and so far he has!  His bone marrow is NORMAL and he has 100% of his sister Tor’s cells, NO LEUKEMIA!  HE IS MY HERO!  He is stronger than all of us put together and he’s fighting the good fight.  The hardest part might be the healing process because he’s now at home but can’t do all the things he is used to doing.  Thank you for choosing Drew to be your team hero!  He is so thankful to everyone who has supported him and he is very excited to be able to be a part of a group who is raising money to find a cure for cancer!