headlight central Maintained by:   michaelsfather9603( 2667) Welcome to my eBay Store. Please add me to your list of favorite sellers and visit often. Thank you for your business.

Back to previous page  Michaelsfather9603-the reason Hi, first of all I realize this will not be seen by many, but I was persuaded to do this by a trusted friend. I have been buying and selling on ebay for 7+ years. I am by trade a body and paint man, specializing in high line car collision repair. I took my 5 year apprenticeship in Esher Surrey, {London} in 1976. I met my wife there, and we are still together after all these years. I have lived in Vegas for 6 or so years now. In 1983, I left England with my English wife, and we moved to WA state, where we built and opened our own collision shop. We did ok financially, but were having no luck starting a family. After 10 years of trying, we were told to give up, as my wife had 2 surgeries for tubal corrections, and I was tested and told I was ok.  We gave up, and soon after were told we were pregnant. It was 1995. We were elated, as we were ready to care for children now. Our son Michael James was born Aug. 4th 1996, in Spokane WA. and it was the happiest day of our lives. My younger sister already had 3 children, and she was there along with my Mom to celebrate. I knew I would care for my son and his Mom for the rest of my life. Two years later we were truly enjoying family life when we were told we were expecting again!. After 2 and a half months, my wife Karen was having terrible pains in her stomach. I put mike in his car seat, and we rushed her to the hospital. They discovered the baby was growing in one of her tubes, and the tube had exploded, killing the fetus, and as it turns out, almost my wife. We were happy to have Karen home after 2 days, but very saddened by the loss of our 2nd child, and Karens tubes too. Now we knew we would never be able to concieve again. WA winters were hard on us, and Mike had to stay in the house a lot due to the cold. We started thinking of moving. We took a trip  to Vegas in Feb. 99, and loved it. We went back to WA, and put our business and house on the market. Amazingly, the shop sold in 60 days. I took 5 months to pack, spend time with Mike, our family, and to sell on ebay. We came to Vegas in Sept. 99. We took Mike to Disneyland, and bought a house in Vegas. I got a good job in Nov. that year and life was great. April 2000, we decided we wanted more land for Mike, so we sold the house we had just bought, and bought one with land, and similar aged kids in the neighboring homes. Now life was really great, and we had the best summer ever. Oct 8th Mike said his knee hurt. We took him to the doctor, and he could find nothing. That night Mike kept waking with knee pain. The next morning Karen and I decided they would go to doctors until the problem was fixed. I went to work as usual, and Karen called at 3pm to say the doctor says we should go to the childrens hospital at 4pm for a final test. I met them there, and had to carry Mike because his leg hurt so much. The whole thing was a trick to get us all there safely. When we arrived, we were told Mike had leukemia of the blood, and he would be there for a long time. We slept with Mike in the hospital that night, out of our minds with worry, but not letting him see it. He looked fine compared to a lot of the other kids we were sharing the floor, and our room with. The nurse said only one parent can stay, and I replied, "try to get one of us to leave". {not meaning to be cocky at all, but I was not leaving my son}. The doctor told us it was the most curable of all the strains, and we should be able to take Mike home in 10 days or so. He took the chemo well, and we did leave after 11 days. We were told Mike would need chemo for 3 years, and there was an 85% chance of a cure. I went back to work, and Karen took Mike for his weekly chemo and checkups. When Mike lost his hair, I shaved my head. We always had the same hairstyle no matter what, he loved that. We took vacations families do, and Mike was responding well enough to the treatment to go to Kindergarten. He loved school, {it was a small private religious school} and was popular wit the others in his class. He graduated Kindergarten, and was so proud of himself. We threw a party for him and his friends, and had a great summer. Mike started 1st grade in 2002, and he liked that too. Every so often, Karen would get a call saying Mike did not feel good, and she would go and get him. In Sept. 2002, Mikes cancer doctor died suddenly from a stomach infection. We all took a day off and went to his service to pay our respects. I remember thinking, I hope Mike is ok now, because if not, who will we turn to. Thanksgiving 2002, we return early from a family vacation to Ca. because Mike is feeling bad. We go to the doctors office, but its closed. We go to the Emergency room, and are told, Mike is fine, here is some liquid morphine for pain. 2 days later Mike cannot breathe, so we call 911. The ambulance takes us to the same emergency room, and we are told the same. Monday, Mikes new doctor is back in town. He see's Mike and does blood tests and say's he's fine. I am not convinced, so I request a biopsy. I know this is not nice for my son, but I can't take any chances. The doctor agrees to do it Tues. morning. I leave work early Tues. and take Karen and Mike to 1 of his favorite drive thru eating places. As soon as we sit down at home, the phone rings, Mike's doctor say's "it's back, get down here right now". We had no idea what we were in for. mike is all of a sudden in a lot of pain, and they are giving him major chemo. He slowly loses blood pressure, color, interest in anything. We are now in the ICU. I thought the childrens oncology ward was tough, but the ICU is definitely the scariest neighborhood we had ever been in. Each day, the doctor say's Mike is not going to make it. Mike's doctor tells me Mike needs granulocytes, a part of the blood system, and without them he will die. HE IS 6 YEARS OLD! We called the local TV stations and were astonished that they ran the story every hour, the blood banks had to extend hours, and Mike got what he needed. Mike woke up on Xmas day 2002, and told me happy birthday Dad. {mine is the 16th}. We managed to take him home 1/3/03. Mike was very weak, but his spirit was strong. We were told he needed a transplant now, or he would die. I stayed out of work, and Karen and I did everything we could to help Mike build his strength for the truly horrible transplant procedure. We were set to go to transplant in May 03, but they were having trouble keeping Mike in remission long enough. Finally we were ready in June, but Mike got a fever 4 days before the start. All the doctors said they didn't know if it was a relapse, or an infection. We drove the 700 miles to the transplant, by now injecting morphine into Mike's port every 1 or 2 hours. The doctor who was to do the transplant told us to take Mike home and let him die in peace, there was nothing that could be done. We took Mike back home and met his doctor who advised the same. I was frustrated to say the least. All the time trying not to let on to Mike what we were hearing. after spending 48-72 hrs on the web, I found 12 or so ideas that sounded good for Mike to get into remission. When I put them to Mike's doctor, he said he found a clinical trial, in the NE USA and they would accept Mike. We went, but after 2 weeks or so, things were going terribly. We actually had t get a Learjet with an ICU crew to get Mike back to Vegas, because he was not allowed on regular aircraft. When we got home, the doctors that knew him got him basically out of his coma, and we were again able to go home. Mike could not do much physically now, so Karen and I , and Mike's best friend would watch tv, and play videogames with him. My noble son, Michael James Smith, managed to last 2 and a half more months, staying at home, with my wife and I administering IV drugs to him, usually 20 or so per day. To his credit, he also took I'm sure that many pills each day.   I miss my only child, my son so much, that I wrote a book about him for family and friends, so they could know how brave he really was. It was only Karen and I and the doctors that had actually witnessed it. So many people said it should be published. We didn't know if that was a good idea or not, as it was so personal. After much thought, we decided Mike would want us to do just that, to help the sick kids of today. The book is now published, and our website address is. www.mysonmyhero.com    Or you can reach me personally at ksmith@mysonmyhero.com. I don't expect this to change anyones bids, or anything else. I would like all who read this to know that I do ebay now as well as work a lot of hours because I need to stay busy. Sometimes I have good stuff, sometimes not, but it keeps me occupied. Karen and I bought a lot of really nice toys and took them to the kids last Xmas, as thats what Mike wanted to do when he got better. God Bless you Mikey!  All proceeds from "My Son My Hero" {thats the books title} go to childrens cancer charities.

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