Miracles Do Happen!

Cancer doesn’t just impact your family, it impacts every single person who knows you. It makes them wonder how their faith will be tested. Leann Rhodes-Ickes, a wife, business owner, and mother of two had her whole world flipped upside down last year. From normal to wild, from home to hospital. Rhodes-Ickes has a beautiful daughter named Madison and a handsome son named JP. Leann and her husband John had been trying to have another child for years but kept having miscarriages so JP is their rainbow baby. Everyone was so happy when she was pregnant with him, but even more, once he was born. New life being brought into the world brings families together, but another thing that brings families together is sickness. Last year, JP was headed to the doctors for a regular check-up, but that regular check-up turned into much more. Before leaving to take him to the doctor’s office, Leann and her husband noticed that JP’s belly seemed abnormally big. Leann thought nothing of it; she thought maybe he just had too much milk but she was not thinking the worst. Her husband told her that his belly didn’t look normal, so he asked her to please ask the doctor to take a look at it. Leann thought it would be embarrassing to ask the doctor about her son’s belly because some babies have big bellies and it was probably nothing.

When she took her son to the doctor for his checkup, everything looked fine, that is, until she asked the doctor to take a look at his belly. The doctor felt on his belly and said, “You know, he’s probably just lactose intolerant because you’re breastfeeding. I’m going to send you to the hospital for a second opinion.” So they went to the hospital where they did an x-ray on JP. The doctor told Leann that he sees something that just isn’t right. The doctor saw a mass on the x-ray so he wanted to transfer them to another hospital, John Hopkins Children Hospital. At this time, Leann still didn’t believe that this was anything serious. No mom would want to believe that anything is seriously wrong with her child. This was hard for Leann to process. They waited two days as the doctors ran a series of tests and scans. This experience was horrible for her. He was too little to have IVs in his arm so they put them in his head. Imagine watching your two-and-a-half week old child having to have IVs put in his head. Yeah, that’s how Leann felt. It was terrifying for her to watch. After all the series of tests and scans, the doctors sat with Leann and her son in a room and told her that they have the results. Leann wasn’t alone. With her was her husband and her father-in-law. Once the doctor started speaking, it was like words were coming out of his mouth but Leann couldn’t hear them as if she just blacked out. The doctor told them that JP has stage four neuroblastoma cancer and a mass and they wanted to start chemo right away. Looking at his road map, the doctors said that he would need a year and a half of chemo treatment.

As any parent would do after receiving this kind of news, Leann asked the doctor if she will get to keep her son after all of this. Wondering if he would lose his life to this, the doctor looked at her and said, “Well, we’re always hopeful but we just don’t know right now. He has a tumor behind his heart that’s not operable and he has cancer all through his liver.” JP began chemo the very next day which insisted on Leann living in the hospital, so she went home to pack a bag to live with her son in the hospital. Her husband would stay home with their daughter and hold down the fort and just come visit them. Leann owns her own business so she had the capability to drop everything to take care of her son and still be ok. Four days later, Leann’s husband brought Madison up to the hospital. Madison had no clue what was going on. She just thought that her brother was sick and that he would be fine soon, and would be able to come home in a few days. Madison met her mother on the oncology floor where they were staying; Leann looked at her and told her that she has something to tell her. Madison said ok but then began looking at her surroundings and told her mom that there are so many kids here with cancer and bald heads. Then looked at her mom and said, “Wait, why are we on this floor?” Leann then proceeded to tell her about her brother. This was the hardest thing she has ever had to tell a child. The first words that came out of Madison's mouth were “Is he going to die?” As an only child whose dream was to have a sibling, and was so happy to have gotten a baby brother after 13 years. All she could think about was if she was going to lose him before she even had time to be the big sister she always wanted to be. Leann explained to her that they don’t know if he will survive this or not, but she just kept telling her that they will get through this with lots of love and prayer.

Imagine going through a situation like this, receiving this kind of news, having to tell your daughter this news, and hearing that the doctors don’t know if you’re son will survive or not. If you believe in God and then something like this happened to you, how would you feel? We have to remember that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. Leann could handle this but she just didn’t believe it yet. This was a test of her faith and she didn’t know that just yet. She and her husband became angry at God because they didn’t feel like they deserved for this to happen to them. They didn’t understand how this could happen. Leann just kept saying this isn’t fair, I don’t deserve this, and began saying that there must not be a God because there is no way this could happen. She started thinking, what if they could have discovered the cancer during her sonogram? The doctors went through all of her sonograms and there was no evidence of anything. One night, her friend had asked her to get out of the hospital and to go to church with her. She didn’t want to go but she knew that she needed a mental break from being in the hospital so she went with her friend that night. Her friend had some people praying for her. One person in particular who was praying was someone Leann recognized from her previous church. She told him that she just needs a sign that everything is going to be ok, for someone to tell her that she isn’t going to lose her son. Her friend looked at her and said, “You’re not going to lose your son, does that make you feel better?” She said to him “No, not really.” He explained to her that it’s because she needs to believe, start believing in her heart that she will not lose her son.

After that encounter, she still wasn't believing yet, so she called on a close friend. That friend is Dana Barish, the most positive person she’s ever met. Leann emotionally unloaded everything on her, cried to her, and kept telling her how this isn’t fair, that she doesn’t deserve this, what did she do to deserve this, and why her. Barish explained to her that she is looking at this the wrong way; she told her "It’s not 'why you' but 'why not you'. The universe had to give this baby to someone special, that God knew that JP needed this story to propel him into whatever future is set for him. He has big plans in the world and he needed this to help develop him into whatever his greater purpose is in life; how dare you take that away from him like he’s going to get through this because he has a mom and you were chosen to be this boy's mom," Barish said. "This boy was meant to bring people together and help people’s faith grow stronger, and he will pull out of this. You have to believe that. You can work from a hospital room, you’ve built a team to where you’re not going to miss a beat in your salary if you take off to be with your son. Most people and parents can’t say that but you can, so instead of asking 'why me', ask 'why not you'. You are the perfect person to be this boy’s mom who is going to pull him through the hardest chapter of his life."

After her phone call with Dana, Leann changed her mindset. From now on she started saying, “you know what, why not me.” She was determined to get her faith back, and began going to church every Sunday. She started noticing signs, signs that will help her get through this hard time in her life. JP’s spirit animal, ever since she was pregnant with him, was a deer. She prayed to God and asked him to give her a sign that this next scan will be ok; this scan was the first one to see how he was reacting to the chemo. One night after church, her friend took her out to dinner. Afterwards, her friend gave her a ride back to the parking lot to get her car. While in the parking garage, Leann spotted a family of deer: the mother, father, baby deer, and one more. Just like her family: her husband, her daughter, her son, and herself. This family of deer resembled her family. She began crying and saying that this is her sign. This was her sign that everything was going to be ok. They got the results back from the scans and it showed that he was making progress with the chemo.

She continued to grow stronger in her faith every day, believing what God told her and not what the doctors told her. She believed everything that the doctors told her not to believe. They told her that he would need to have a year and a half of treatment but she told them "no, you just watch." On Facebook, someone told her about the natural healing of cancer and cancer cells and how they work, mutate, what kills them, and how it’s all connected to the things we eat. CBD oil is known to shrink tumors, so she began putting CBD oil (without THC in it of course) under her tongue since she was still breastfeeding, hoping that it would help him and also put some under his tongue. She changed her diet. She started juicing, cutting red meat out, and even sugars. Juicing was supposed to help kill the cancer cells, so she drank four ounces every four hours. Soon it was time for another scan. The doctor said that these scans will determine when the end of his treatment would be. After having the scans completed, Leann and JP were able to go home for a few days. Then, one day she gets a call from the doctor.

The doctor asks her if she is sitting down for this, Leann replied yes, but at this time, Leann is thinking the worst. The doctor tells her that they got the scans and that JP is done with treatment. The doctor had no explanation for it but for her to count this as a miracle. The scans are clear and beautiful. There is no tumor behind his heart and there were still a few spots of cancer left on his liver but they would go away on their own as the chemo continues working. JP no longer needed to continue chemo treatments, he was all done and it was a beautiful miracle. The doctor asked Leann if she wanted to come into the hospital next week so that JP could ring his bell. She fell to her knees and began crying and saying how she just witnessed a miracle. She witnessed what every doctor said wasn’t possible. She was given a little cap and gown for JP so he could graduate from chemo. Their closest family and friends all came to the hospital to witness JP ring his bell and all went out afterward to celebrate. The following week they came back to the hospital so he could get his port taken out.

Living in that hospital was hard for Leann, especially late at night when she would hear alarms going off because a child was coding, and the only thing going through her mind was if her child was going to be the next to code. She wanted everyone to be able to follow JP’s journey, but it was so overwhelming to go on social media and respond to everyone, so she had an idea to write daily letters. She began to write daily posts on Facebook addressed to JP talking about how his day was. The only time she got on social media was to post her daily letter for her son and then she stayed off. She planned on reading these letters to him some day. She eventually wrote a book talking about his journey called “Just Prevail: In The Middle Of The Storm.” Now JP just goes in every six months for scans and every three months for urine tests. This is their five-year plan to keep monitoring him. His scans have been completely clear and he is healthy and striving with little to no side effects from this. There is a part of this family who still has PTSD from all of this. It is just a growing process that they will have to progress through every day.