Maxie L. - Quilt Finished in 2004

Maxie's Story

written by mom Christy

During the spring of 1993 I was shopping for baby stuff for the little "girl" I thought I was having. Well, I was induced at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX on April 2nd, 1993.

On the morning of April 3rd, 1993 Maxie was born c-section. He was a small but a healthy baby boy. He was so pretty everyone thought he looked like a girl. My little future star, he was a ham from the beginning. Loved to get attention, and listened to everything. Except for having colic, he was a great baby. He brought joy to my family because he was the first and only great grandchild and grandchild on my side of the family. My mom, his grandmother, bonded with him immediately.

When Robert, his little brother came along, on October 26th, 1994, Maxie was happy. He rubbed Robert and told everyone to see the baby. Robert loved Maxie from the moment he was old enough to know that was his brother. They are like Frick and Frack, but oh the bond they had.

In 1997 we moved to Virginia from Texas and they loved going to school here. We moved to Amelia where we live now since 2001. Maxie loved his school here, and his friends. In July of 2003, Maxie had an ongoing stomach ache and nausea that wouldn't go away. So I took him to our family doctor and she had never seen him sick before.

The nurse said he looked a bit jaundice. Him being of mixed race is kinda hard to tell, but under the office lights I could see the yellowing of his eyes. Our doctor of 5 years came in and pushed his stomach and turned to me and said to take him to the children's ER immediately. She handed me a package of tissue and said "You will need these".

She thought it might be Hepatitis or something on his liver. I felt sick, I went home got my mom and dropped Robert with a friend and went to the ER. The nicest doctor there did some tests and called me into an empty exam room. My mom, who had already been told, asked if I was ready. My knees buckled, and the doctor said he had a mass very large on his biliary tree and liver area. She thought it was lymph nodes. She teared up, and I called out WHY??!! This only happens to other people, not us!!

They sent us to MCV, the best hospital. They ran tests, did surgery and figured out that he had Rhabdomyosarcoma Stage III. It was in his biliary tree and his bio-duct was running through it. So they had to figure a way to drain the Bilirubin out of Maxie and be able to take chemo since surgery to remove the tumor was not possible.

They placed a Bilirubin bag on his side for a month and a half. We were glad when it was taken off. We went to the clinic a few times a week. He loved to flirt with all the women. Such a wolf! I wanted him to keep his head up because we are a single parent family and all we had was each other and my parents. Family is so important to us, ours is so small so we are very close.

Maxie fought a hard battle for 8 short months. Gracefully and painlessly his life ended on March 27th, 2004. I turned off his respirator after only two days of life support. Knowing there wasn't any chance of survival. I held him and cried as they turned the machine off and he lived for almost three minutes until it was time to go. He gently opened his eyes and passed away surrounded by friends and family and nurses. He was never afraid of leaving the Earth, just leaving his family, I knew this because we talked of the outcome often. The Angels were happy to have him join them and we are at peace also knowing he is on our "team". I love you Maxie and miss you so and each day is one day closer to being with you.