Best-selling author Andy Andrews is quoted as saying, “We’re all either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or heading for a crisis. That’s just part of being with us on this planet.”
Except for those among us who have masochistic tendencies being the exception to the rule, Andrews’ words may not be pleasant for most of us. Seasons of crisis find us all. And while none of us pursue the crises that befall us, often the perspective we gain as we endure those seasons is one of the most precious gifts we find in life.
In early spring of 2024, Kade Pruitt was your average 12-year-old boy. He went to school. He played sports. He hung out with his friends. He pestered his older sister. He did all the things parents would want for a happy, healthy young man of his age.
Like so many stories surrounding the crises that collide with us in life, that’s when the story took a turn.
While bench pressing at school one day, a miscue between Pruitt and his spotter resulted in the bar dropping to his chest faster than normal. A few hours later while talking to his mom, Kristine, who has a medical background, about the incident and the continuing pain in his chest, a quick examination gave the Pruitts no reason to be concerned. However, as the night progressed, so did the pain, to the point that it woke Kade up in the middle of the night.
“I felt like I had a knife or something stabbing me in the chest,” Kade explained.
Regardless of what they tried, the pain would not subside. Pain relievers, ice packs, heat therapy, and everything else they tried would not dull the pain enough to allow him to get comfortable. He spent most of the early morning hours moving from location to location in the house, trying to find any position on any surface that would allow him to find enough comfort to fall asleep.
“Finally I gave him some Benadryl at 5 in the morning, and he was able to lay down and fall asleep on the couch,” Kristine recalled.
After getting a few hours of much needed sleep, Kade saw a doctor and got an x-ray. The x-ray appeared clear except for some inflammation in his chest. He was prescribed Advil and expected to be fine in a few days.
Unfortunately – or perhaps very fortunately depending on the perspective – he didn’t get better. While playing in a baseball tournament the following weekend, it was clear to Kristine that something just wasn’t right.
“He was slow, he couldn’t throw, and he couldn’t really bat, and he couldn’t really pitch,” she said. “His coaches asked what was up with Kade, and I was like, I don’t really know. He’s got this chest thing. It seemed to get better, but now it’s worse.”
Kade’s dad Tye returned home from a business trip after the baseball tournament concluded. As Kade and Kristine recounted his performance during the tournament, Tye became convinced that it would be good to get Kade in to see his regular pediatrician.
Lab work requested by his regular doctor revealed Kade’s white blood cell count was elevated, but he didn’t have any signs of his body fighting off an infection. In order to rule out if he was dealing with some sort of infection, his pediatrician ordered more labs a few days later including what is called a blood smear test.
That test revealed not only were his white blood cells still elevated, but he had blast cells (immature white blood cells housed in the bone marrow until they mature) in his bloodstream.
Doing all their due diligence, their pediatrician referred the Pruitts to Cook Children’s Hospital for more testing. While there, for the first time since the barbell incident, Kade began to run a fever. Between the stubborn chest pain that wouldn’t get better, the blast cells in his blood, and the newly onset fever, a bone marrow biopsy was scheduled for the following morning.
The oncologist explained there was a 50 percent chance the bone marrow biopsy would reveal Kade was dealing with an infection, at which point they would have to start looking for infection sites in his body. The other 50 percent chance was that he would be diagnosed with leukemia.
When the results came back, it was the dreaded c-word.
“It was obviously something that caught us off guard quite a bit,” Tye said. “Just like Kenrie (Kade’s older sister who is committed to play volleyball for Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the fall of 2025), Kade’s also a very athletic kid. Before he was diagnosed, we literally had practice or a game all seven days of the week. There might be three or four days out of the month where we came home, and we were able to eat here. It was that busy.”
One word flipped their entire world upside down: Cancer.
Once the official diagnosis was made, the Pruitts were unceremoniously ushered into a new way of life. While the success rate for Kade’s treatment is high, the doctors made no qualms about letting them know up front, regardless of how responsive Kade’s system was to the treatment, the next two-and-a-half years were going to be spent battling this disease.
“We had his initial bone marrow biopsy on March 5,” Kristine said. “He started the initial phase of chemo right away. Then on April 21 he had his repeat bone marrow biopsy. It was negative for residual disease, which is good. That’s the verbiage they use. That means there’s no leukemia detectable.”
A small victory, but a victory nonetheless was more than they could hope for at such an early point in what was promised to be a long two-and-a-half year treatment plan. Then, in June another round of biopsies revealed more good news.
“His oncologist said those two biopsies being negative for disease is the best prognostic indicator for Kade’s leukemia,” said Kristine. “He doesn’t use the words cured or healed. We won’t hear the word remission for a while. So, I’ve committed that to memory: Best prognostic indicator.”
While they’ve gotten the best news they possibly could from the biopsies thus far in his treatment plan, battling cancer is a war of attrition. In between those silver linings have been a lot of cloudy days filled with lengthy hospital stays.
Most recently, Kade spent 16 straight days in the hospital, including Thanksgiving Day. Over the summer months, he spent 45 out of 60 days in the hospital during one stretch. Kristine and Tye switch off nights staying with Kade until the doctors are satisfied with his lab work and discharge him from the hospital where he can return home to live some semblance of a normal life.
In 1776, American founding father Thomas Paine penned the statement, “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price on its goods.”
One of the greatest blessings that comes out of any crisis is the gift of perspective. For the Pruitt family, that has certainly been the case since that earth-shaking day back in early March. By their own admission they went from a family consumed with work, the practice schedule, where they were meeting for dinner between games and practices, and whatever else they could squeeze in from week-to-week.
Life had become a blur moving at a break-neck pace. They were so focused on the next thing that the idea of taking a moment to appreciate this stage of life or to be thankful for all the blessings they had never hit the radar.
That’s all changed now. They’ve become so aware of the preciousness and fragility of life. They’ve refocused on their faith in Christ. They’ve met wonderful families during Kade’s extensive stays at Cook’s who are fighting the same fight they are.
They’ve been blown away by the support from the community in Aledo overall, and especially from the Ladycat volleyball team. Most of all, they’ve become closer as a family.
“I’m thankful for everyone who is praying for me and all my supporters through this,” Kade said. “Family, friends, people who are wearing my bracelets, and the Aledo community. I’m thankful for the dogs at the hospital that comfort me.”
As he continues to progress through his treatment plan, life for Kade will slowly but surely begin to return to normal. With only a few months left before she graduates and moves off to Corpus Christi to begin her collegiate career, Kenrie isn’t shy about admitting what she is looking forward to doing with her little brother as soon as he’s able.
“I definitely think Kade and I have gotten closer through this,” she said. “It sounds so childish, but I’m looking forward to playing outside with him. Before he got diagnosed, we were outside playing volleyball every single day of the week, even when it was cold. I miss watching him play sports.”
No one has it easy. One of the fairest things about life is that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, how many zeros are in your bank account, or anything else, life is going to be full of battles.
As a parent, so often we want to protect our kids from having to fight those battles. We would rather take them upon ourselves if only to spare our children a little pain and perhaps a few scars while we are able.
As the conversation wound down, Tye admitted he would take this battle upon himself for his son if he could. True to who he is through and through, Kade quickly chimed in.
“I don’t think I would let you take it from me,” he said. “I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t see you go through that, Dad.”
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