EP 2: Chemo To Championships

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Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Before we jump into this week's episode, we would like to announce a partnership
that we are doing this month withJersey Mice. We're partnering with them all
month long for their Month of Giving, So stop on buy into your local
Jersey Mice in a Dallas Fort Wortharea to grab us up and make an
in store donation, and don't forgetthat the Day of Giving is Wednesday,

(00:25):
March twenty seventh, where one hundredpercent of sales will be donated to Wipe
Out Kids Cancer. Hey guys,welcome to Conversations with Kids Being Cancer podcast.
This podcast is brought to you byWipeout Kids Cancer, Dallas Fort Worth
pediatric cancer charity since nineteen eighty.This podcast is designed to connect kids that
are currently battling cancer with pediatric cancersurvivors. We invite you guys to sit

(00:48):
down with one of our Young Championboard members as they interview those who have
defeated cancer in their unfiltered raw journeysince their diagnosis. So if you like
we here, make sure to givea five star Ratate know wherever you listen
to your podcast and tell your friendseveryone. My name is Dante Dean.

(01:15):
I'm here with Samuel Reynolds. Andthis is episode two of Whip Out Kids
Cancer. And you know, whenI first found out that sam had cancer,
you know, it was it washeartbreaking because Samuel, he's like a
he's a person that works, buthe's really like a he's quiet, like
he don't really talk a lot.You do his thing, and so when

(01:36):
I found out was really heartbreaking.Like I found out for my mom.
She actually told me because my momand Samuel's mom are friends, and she
told me. And when my momfirst told me, it was like like
like out of everyone, wow,like sam Like out of everyone, like,
yeah, you think we'll get cancer, and like it you don't think
it would be Samuel because like justas much as like what he does and

(01:59):
how much he puts into stuff,like he doesn't he doesn't take anything like
less than one hundred percent. Andyou know, it was devastating because he
was a big part of our footballteam too, so you know, it
was like it was kind of thathurt in your chest where it was just
like it hurt like a lot,and I think it reflected on everyone hurting
a lot. And then you know, so it was sad. I visited

(02:23):
Samuel once or twice while he wasin the hospital, and you know,
just seeing him there, it waslike like out of everything he done,
like just state championship of wrestling,three of them. Now, it's just
it broke my heart because I knewhow much Samuel loved the game of football,
and I knew how much Samuel didn'twant to be in there, and

(02:43):
it really it hurt, and likeI said, it reflected on everyone.
But he just he overcame so muchand like with the grace of God and
everything. And I just remember onetime I went to the hospital to visit
him, and I just asked ifI can pray for him, and I
told him that everything's going to begood, just keep going, just keep
fighting it. And you know that'swhat he did. He kept his grace

(03:05):
in God. He finally overcame it, won a state wrestling championship a third
one, and came back to footballseason finished out with us seeing him go
through all that and seeing him stillgo to work and not just not just
let the cancer get him. Youknow, he really like fought it.
And I was like when I whenI watched some work and he was still
the same person he always been.He was still doing the same things he

(03:28):
always has done, and you knowit, and that reflected on everyone else
too. They saw how hard hefought, so that made everyone else fight
like ten times harder. So youknow, it was it was, It
was really good, you know.But yeah, yeah, I was just
just knowing that everyone at my backand was in my corner the whole time,
feeling with support from the whole team, and watching how close everyone got

(03:51):
after I got diagnosed was really special. I mean, being a two time
captain the football team, it's toughfor a team to lose one of their
leaders, and they didn't slow downat all. It made me really proud
to see everything they did and thencontinued to build the team chemistry, get
closer, work harder. That helpeda lot. Knowing that I wasn't going

(04:12):
to be there to help lead theteam, so knowing that they still went
to work every day helped me fightit even more. That was just a
really cool part to see and gettingto hear all the new things they were
doing and how everyone was doing inthe weight room, how the coaches were
doing. Getting to hear that andall the progress they were making helped me
make progress in the hospital, fightingwe went to the hospital for a skin

(04:33):
infection. Being a wrestler, you'reused to those kind of things and just
comes with the sport, and sowe're going there just thinking it'd be a
routine doctor's visit, get some antibiotics, and it'll be better in a couple
of days. But while I wasin the hospital or at the doctor's office,
I kind of had a little sinkingspell where like just something didn't feel

(04:56):
right, and I kind of collapsedon the table and they had mend me
to the er from there and justkept running some blood tests. Through the
blood test, they saw that myplatelets weren't at the level they needed to
be, and so then they referredus to a hematologist oncologist, and we
got in the hospital that Thursday,and on Monday they did the bone marrow
test and the results were back earlyTuesday morning, and they walked in and

(05:20):
told us the exact leukema I hadand the kind of the next steps from
there. And so the next daythey put the central line in my chest
that'd be where I'd get all mybloods on for the next six months,
where all my medicine would go through, and they started chemo that Thursday,
and so that's really like how wefound it. But and then from there

(05:41):
it was just four rounds of chemo, one hundred and eighteen days in the
hospital. My longest break at homewas eleven days and diagnosed April fourth,
left the hospital August seventeenth, when, like you said, you collapsed on
the table and you do like youweren't feeling yourself. What was going through
your mind? Did you just think, like, you know, it's just
I'm sick. I just thought itwas just a bad infection, Like,

(06:03):
yeah, cancer really didn't even popinto my mind until I heard the word
on cologist, and even then,like it still didn't even register. But
that's what they were looking at.I mean, because I had been hospitalized
for several days before with an infectionfor wrestling, so that's what I thought.
It was just going to be.Like I wasn't super scared yet until
like they started treatment, and thenthat's when you yeah, yeah, so

(06:28):
I just me seeing your parents whenI went to go visit you, it
looked like they were fighting in it, but it like it looked like it
had a effect on you. ButI mean, obviously, you know,
more like how were they dealing withit. How were they going through,
what were they doing and trying tokeep fighting? That first really weak was
I think pretty rough on them.Definitely the first day they were a mess,

(06:50):
and they didn't want to show itaround me. That that first week
was really when distraught the most.And there were some hard times throughout the
whole process, but definitely the firstthree days they would not try to show
it around me as much. Mybrother was there when I got the diagnosis.
Also, I'll never forget his reaction. He was just like he just

(07:11):
looked at me and said, allright, just another thing you're gonna have
to beat. You got it,Like you've won two state championships so far.
This is just another championship. You'regonna have it you have to face.
And then it's just that helped alot. Seeing his strong reaction,
and I mean he was he wasdevastated too, but he didn't show it
around me. But I mean theywere pretty tight family, and so they

(07:33):
they definitely tried to stay as strongas they could even through those hard moments
that we had. Yeah, ithad an effect on my mama too.
He was devastated and you know meand your mom or me my mom and
your mom talk a lot, andhe was devastated too, and I just
my mom was telling me, it'sjust your mom was just you know,
we're gonna keep praying, keep thegoods of God and keep going through this,

(07:54):
and you're gonna get through it.But like during it, so like
you found out and everything, andwhen you were laying in the hill hospital
bit and you were watching our games, what was like going through your mind
during that. I definitely wish Iwas there. Yeah, it was tough
to miss my last spring ball ofhigh school, tough to miss performance course
over the summer. But it wasfun getting to sit there and watch spring

(08:16):
practice, watch the spring game,and just text with all the guys,
coach them up protecting with the coaches, seeing what they were seeing during practice.
So it was kind of fun.It's kind of seeing like what a
coach gets to see. It wasalmost from that perspective, which is kind
of cool. And then Yancey McKnightwould he would come up there every week
and he would tell me about howpractice was going, how the lists were

(08:37):
going, so that would help.Definitely hard not being there. It was
a lot of fun getting to seeit from a coaches perspective. Yeah,
I mean, I'm not a realemotional guy, never really have been.
But seeing like I could tell whenthey were nervous about news that we got
me because we just didn't know anythingabout the whole process, and so they're

(08:58):
trying to figure out stuff googling.It is not helping because they're just getting
a whole bunch of answers. Whenyou saw them stressed out or you knew
that they were hurting inside, likehow did they make an impact on you?
It was hard. But the thingis, as the kid with cancer,
you're sitting there, the doctors andnurses are there all the time.

(09:18):
They know what to do. Theyknow exactly what to do. So the
biggest thing they would always tell us, and my parents and my brother and
sisters that you just got to finda routine. You can't neglect the rest
of the family because I was gettingcare and treatment twenty four to seven.
Having a sister at home in middleschool is a big thing, and so
we had to make sure we hada routine to where she was still.

(09:39):
She got the attention she needed.Her older brother at college got the attention
he needed, and that helped figuringout that routine is what helped them a
lot. And then being able totalk to other families that were on the
floor also getting treatment, getting ideasfrom them, and the nurses, putting
us in connection with other families thathave had treatment there before. That helped

(10:01):
a lot. One thing that doesnot help is googling different information that you're
hearing right off the back that thatwill leads you down rabbit holes of stuff
that you don't know that you maynot affect your kid. You'll see stuff
on Google that will be bad news, but it doesn't necessarily relate to what
your kid has. So during yourone hundred and eighteen days, was it,
yeah, how what were your emotionslike? Were you were you like

(10:24):
spinning around different kinds of emotions?Were you just this emotion the whole time?
Like? What was that like?It was definitely a just a revolving
door of emotions. There were dayswhen I'd get short with my mom and
dad and there was just we justhave to sit there and just relax and
just talk with each other and figureout what's going on. And with the
way my treatment was is high dosechemo over a short period of time,

(10:48):
so it would just knock all mywhole immune system down to where I couldn't
leave, and there would be there'dbe a week or two each round where
I would feel fine, I'd feelcompletely normal because I didn't have any cells
in my body to help fight justnormal infections or normal sicknesses. And so
that's when most of the emotions wouldget in where I'd get impatient, I'd

(11:09):
get angry at certain things. Andit didn't happen a whole lot, but
there were just there was a coupleof times where it was just definitely some
learning moments where we would learn,we'd learn patience. It was definitely one
of the biggest things we learned throughthis whole process. Having my friends reach
out to me every day every weekand knowing they were thinking about me,
seeing the fundraisers that y'all would do, the t shirts y'all made, and

(11:33):
all that all that support. Icould definitely feel it. Getting y'all y'all
visiting me in the hospitals. Ithelped a lot too with the treatment.
And then when i'd be home andour parents would set up times to come
visit, we would just sit outon the front porch or by the garage
talk. It was pretty strong medicinethat helped me heal a lot. Just

(11:54):
being able to talk with people andfeel like a normal kid again. That's
what like going on for that too, is like that helped a lot of
people outside of it too. Thathelped us. We know that you're going
through this cancer and becoming a visitunits and we see you that you're still
fighting. It helped us still outsideof that helped us fight our trials that
we were going through and our thingsthat we need help with. It was

(12:16):
like it kind of brought like aOkay, well I can go through this.
Sam is fighting cancer right now andhe's doing great. He's fighting it.
He has God with him. Sothat reflected to us too that we
can fight our trials that we're goingto too. So I feel like that
really helped us a lot too.And knowing that you came back when you're
third straight state champion wrestling, comingback to football, finishing the season off

(12:39):
strong, like we needed you.And what would you say to kids that
are going through the same thing,that want to come back to the things
they love to do and the thingsthat they enjoy doing the other other day
life that just stopped and that wantto keep going after you know, they
get treated everything. What would yousay to those kids. I think it
just all boils down to your mindsetand your goals want to be. You

(13:01):
can't halfway want to get back andthen in halfway want to just move on
after your treatment and start living anormal life. Whatever you decide to do,
you have to go in all theway with that, and your closest
people are going to help you getback to whatever that is you want to
do. They have to be onthe same page too, and that has
to be their goal too. Andyou'll talk about it and talk about it
weekly, just so the goal staysfresh in your mind and give you something

(13:24):
to do, something to talk about, something to look forward to. And
Yancey McKnight, he's the guy Ispent a lot of time with once I
was officially done. With him everymorning working out, and he was when
I got to the hospital. Hesat me down, He's like, we
can get you back, but Ineed to know that's what you want to
do. And right there I toldhim I'm playing football this year, and
so we set that goal and Iwas able to come back a lot faster

(13:48):
than I thought I would able toplay eight game four rounds deep in the
playoffs, and so I would justsay it just comes down your mindset and
what you want to do, andmake sure everyone around you understands that's what
you want to do. And whenthey under stand your goals, they're going
to help. They're going to doeverything for you to get you there and
get you everything you need to getback. I would say that's the biggest
thing for kids that want to goback and plays play whatever sport that is

(14:11):
they play. It's just all yourmindset. Well, Sam, it's been
honored doing this podcast with these especiallycoming from a friend downpoint and coming from
what I've all seen you go throughand fight through and you fight the cancer
off. But this is White BlockKids Cancer and I hope you all enjoyed
episode two of his Beating Cancer podcastsand doune into future podcasts of blacklockids Cancer.

(14:33):
Thanks for tuning in on this week'sConversation with Kids Beating Cancer podcasts.
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