Spencer family with ill son finds strength from community

Whether it is losing a loved one or getting word of an unexpected illness, when something in life doesn’t go as planned, it is often easy to feel that you will face your struggles alone. When her son Parker was diagnosed with acute lymphnoblastic Tcell leukemia, Lydia Klimmer could have easily gone into the fight discouraged. But through the support that was given to her, Parker, and the rest of their family as they continue in their fight against this cancer, they have found that they will never be alone.

The fight for Parker began last fall just before he was set to begin his first-grade classes at the Spencer School District. Lydia said she had noticed that her son’s neck looked swollen, and so she took him to the doctor to find out what was wrong.

“So it was Labor Day weekend, and I noticed the lymph nodes on the sides of his neck were severely swelled up,” she said. “He was eating normal, acting normal. We tried to see a doctor and she suggested we go in and swab for strep. The test was positive, but there were no other signs of strep. That commonly happens when they are later diagnosed with leukemia, it’s a false positive.”

With the initial diagnosis of strep throat, Lydia said they were sent home with some antibiotics for Parker that were expected to clear up the condition in two weeks. But instead of getting better, Parker’s condition rapidly grew worse. It was back to the doctor once again.

“We had been sent home with antibiotics follow up in two weeks,” she said. “We noted no improvement with the antibiotics and he started to feel very tired. He wanted to lay down on the couch and was not eating at all. We called the doctors about it and they said to give it time. We went back two weeks later and the antibiotics didn’t do anything, it was worse.”

So the doctors ran some more tests. When they had first come in, Lydia said the doctors had found nothing unusual in Parker’s bloodwork. This time, though, they found his white blood cell count to be abnormally high. After an oncologist was brought in, they received the news: Parker had cancer.

“I was hoping they would send us home with different antibiotics, but I knew it wasn’t good,” she said. “The doctor came to take a look at him, he’s an oncologist, felt around and found things were not where they were supposed to be. We knew something was not right, he’s normally a healthy kid, but we never thought it would be cancer.”

Because acute lymphnoblastic T-cell leukemia is a very aggressive form of cancer, Lydia said as soon as the doctors had a positive diagnosis, they had to begin treatment. There was no going home that day.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO “Everything had to happen very quickly,” she said. “He was admitted to the hospital that day, he could not go home. They had to get started on treatment that afternoon, it takes over very fast. The first few days were a blur, but by then (Parker) was so tired and out of it I don’t think he knew what was going on.”

Despite his initial tiredness, Parker quickly showed how strong he truly was. Through the different treatments of varying levels of chemotherapy, Lydia said he has continued to power through.

“He has been so brave and so positive through his treatment so far,” she said. “He has shown us what true strength is. He is about 8 months into his couple-year journey … but he won’t let that get him down. He knows the pain is temporary and keeps fighting through like a champ.”

As Parker went through his treatments, doctors visits and various tests, Lydia said they quickly came to see how supported they were, not only by their family, but also by their son’s doctors, the other families with children at the Marshfield hospital fighting cancer, and the community of Spencer that they call home.

“Through all this you find the silver linings,” she said. “You realize quickly how wonderful people are and how amazingly lucky we are to have a team of medical providers standing ready to save our babies. In the few short days after Parker was diagnosed there was an army of people standing ready to make dinner, donate money, send prayers and do anything we needed from cleaning house to babysitting.”

While the support felt overwhelming at first, Lydia said the other families at the hospital gave her advice that she would never forget.

“Early on we received advice from a fellow childhood cancer fighting family,” she said. “That advice was to take help others offer. We were used to being the ones giving and almost felt guilty accepting help, but that was the best advice we could have received. We had no clue what to expect but we were going to need the help.”

In the months following Parker’s diagnosis, Lydia said there have been many acts of kindness shown to the family on Parker’s behalf. Whether it was a fundraiser, assistance from her husband’s workplace, or even the lengths Parker’s classmates went to make sure he could attend in-person classes, each gesture meant something to the family.

“The meal train set up for us, the money raised from fundraisers, and all the support we received as we settled into our new ‘normal’ saved us,” she said. “We have seen so much support including many individual donors from both near and far, our immediate and extended family, Spectrum Benefit Solutions of Central WI, Morgan’s Mission/Gorst Family, Marawood Construction, Spencer Class of 2020 and so many more. The old saying of “it takes a village” applies here, and we are blessed to have an amazing village around us.”