Small Town News

Medical Lake 12-year-old on road to recovery

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Youngster has been fending off cancer for the past four years

Ayear ago, after he'd been battling cancer for more than two years already, 11-year-old Clayton Schneider was tired of fighting,

"He said he misses his friends and wants to be normal again," his mother, Shelly, wrote in an online journal entry at the time. "He is angry that he has missed out on so much. He is so done, but he knows that he has to continue on this tough road and see it through to the end."

Schneider, now 12, managed to keep slogging past some pretty big milestones and is now on the road to recovery.

"When I was first diagnosed (in 2006) I didn't even know what in the world the word meant," Schneider said. "My mom was sitting there crying and I was like, what is that word?"

The word, lymphoma, was not something Shelly or her husband Frank had ever expected to associate with their son, then a third grade student at Medical Lake Elementary. "We were just devastated," she said. "It was absolutely unreal."

Doctors were able to remove that tumor from an area of skin on Schneider's stomach, leaving him bed-bound for a few weeks and giving him a large "battle scar." After a tense period of watching to see if the cancer would return, he was re-diagnosed with lymphoma two years later.

This time, radiation treatments and chemotherapy made school attendance impossible for Schneider, who suffered from fatigue, vomiting, intense headaches and occasional fevers.

During fifth grade he received tutoring at home from his previous third grade teacher Susan McMillan, who said Schneider's "happy disposition and his positive attitude" made him a joy to work with.

In sixth grade he attended short after school sessions one week out of every three with Hallett Elementary teachers Susan Weber and Diana Young. "His immune system was so low he couldn't handle being around sick kids," Weber said. "We'd work for a half hour and he'd be yawning. I know it was very difficult for him but he's very brave and courageous when up against so much."

Besides schoolwork, Schneider said his time was mostly filled watching cartoons and playing video games with friends who would often stop by to visit. "It is fun staying home and playing games but after six months it starts to get boring and after almost a year it gets really boring because I run out of things to do," he wrote in an online journal entry last year.

Last November the Make-A-Wish Foundation broke the monotony by installing a basketball court in Schneider's backyard and throwing him a party, catered by Panda Express and attended by members of the Gon-zaga Bulldogs men's basketball team.

With a little help from his older brother Justin, Schneider also was able to run the "survivor lap" during May's Cheney Relay for Life at Woodward Field. "At one point, me and my brother wanted to go around again and I couldn't keep up with him so he threw me on his back so I could finish," Schneider said.

It's now been about seven months since chemotherapy treatments ended and, though he still suffers from fatigue, aches and a lack of appetite, Schneider is more able every day. In June he made it through three months of intensive physical therapy to regain strength in his legs and hips and this September he began seventh grade at the Medical Lake Middle School.

Schneider has now graduated to doctor visits every two months, a testing regimen scheduled to drop to once every three months, every six months, then annually as his health improves. The 12-year-old said he can't wait to get back his full strength for "normal stuff," like basketball, bowling, and P.E. class.

Schneider paused when asked how the last four years have changed him. "I don't really know how to explain, I just think differently now. The way I think has changed."

One thing that hasn't changed, his mother said, is their family's close bond. "We've always been close," she said. "Clayton and I talk a lot about things. He's always been a fantastic person and we're lucky, very lucky."

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at ryan@cheneyfreepress.com



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© 2010 Cheney Free Press Cheney, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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