Little and Mighty: Pictures Say A Thousand Words About This Boy
Jill Osterhage has a real talent for capturing personalities on camera. She's using that talent to capture the life and love of those enduring hardship. And to show the beauty in the face of adversity to compel others to fight challenges with strength and grace. I started following her work, after seeing the photo shoot of Jennifer King and her family.
Jill was looking for families going through cancer, so she could gift them a photo session. I immediately nominated my brother's family. He and his wife, Kat have the sweetest little boy named Corbyn. Jill was able to capture some really amazing poses of Corbyn, showing his personality, so I had to share them with you!
Meet six year old Corbyn. Yes six. Corbyn was born with 18p- which is partial defect in the 18 chromosome. ( He also has cancer) 18p- can affect every child differently. He is nonverbal at this time and can't walk right now, but boy can he get around. When his Momma, Kat brought him to the studio it was very apparent her love for him, her only child, and his love for her. His eyes never left her, followed her everywhere she went. She was constantly telling me just how amazing he is, and I just have to wonder if she realizes, how amazing she is too. She is so strong and compassionate and handles everything that is thrown at her with Strength and Grace!
Corbyn brought a few of his favorites that go to every treatment, and I have to say he is a pro with a phone, much better than I! He is a selfie King!
I want to thank Hooray children's clothing store in downtown Newburgh, for donating his Gold sweater outfit with tan corduroys. Gold is the color for Childhood Cancer,
and his hair cut donated by Rachael Henry.
Here is Kat's story of Corbyn....Little and Mighty!!
Corbyn was born on September 3rd 2013! When he was born he went to NICU for under developed lungs, where he stayed for several days, but when he came home it was amazing. He was such a good baby! At 6 months old his pediatrician sent us to Rileys to see an endocrinologist because Corbyn was falling behind on his growth chart. The endocrine team diagnosed Corbyn with hypothyroidism as well as hypo pituitary. Meaning his body doesnt produce enough hormones to regulate his body. We also saw a geneticist who diagnosed Corbyn with 18p-. 18p- is the cause of his hypothyroidism and his hypo pituitary deficiency. Every case is different with 18p- but most all include developmental delays. Around 2 years old he started growth hormones to help him grow since his body didn't produce enough for him to grow like he should.
In October of 2016 Corbyn had started pre school, he changed sitters, and started having trouble sleeping. At first we just associated this with the growth hormone as it can cause pain and headaches. Corbyn had some bruises from playing that didn't go away like they normally should. Looking at the bruising I noticed little red dots. Being a worried momma I googled the symptoms and it said it could possibly be Leukemia. I called the doctors office to see if they could do some lab work. hoping it would be nothing and I was just overreacting. That night while I was at work the hospital called and told us to get him to Riley's immediately!
Nov 1st 2016 Corbyn was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Our lives were forever changed. Corbyn's treatment plan started. We spent several days at the hospital, he received a port ,chemo through iv, a bone marrow biopsy, and a spinal tap. We were able to come home 4 days later, Corbyn was very lethargic. He was seizing but you could only tell by his eyes rolling back, otherwise he just seemed very sleepy until they put the oxygen mask on him. It was one of the scariest moments of my life probably the scariest at that point. They worked on him for hours his sugars were through the roof. He was life flighted back to Riley's. Mommy and Daddy driving behind because we couldn't ride in the helicopter with him. When we arrived he had already been intabate and was in a medically induced coma. The amount of methotrexate he was given was for his age which is typical for treatment but Corbyn is far from typical, he's a special case because his body doesn't regulate like others and he's much smaller then other kids his age.
That caused a change in his program to go by his size rather than age. He wasn't able to swallow after intubation so he had an ng tube placed. As we are 5 treatments away from being done, we have had overnight stays for chemo going under his skin instead of through the port, new ports placed because the original would no longer work, week upon week stays for illness, low counts, sepsis, pneumonia, collapsed lungs, multiple intabations, seizures from chemo sitting on his brain, drop seizures. We've had Dr's say they couldn't tell us if he would make it through the night, and nurses that said they have never seen someone recover so quickly. We are well know at the pharmacy and the Emergency room. Our family and our community have prayed for us and been there for us! And we can't say enough how much we appreciate them! But we have 5 treatments left. When they mention what you already know, but never want to hear, there is a chance of it coming back. Cancer sucks.