This cutie patootie is Dominic from Murfreesboro, TN and he is currently battling Osteosarcoma. He aspires to be a gamer boy just like his big brother. Dominic’s wish is for a gaming PC, desk, and all of the goodies that a gamer needs. 

Next week we will surprise him at the Main Event in Murfreesboro with all of his wish goodies and a few of our special friends will be stopping by to say hello too. 

His story…

“Two months before his 8th birthday he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. Dominic used to be very active, he played pre-academy soccer and karate. One day in January 2022 he had karate practice  and soccer practice  right after, when he came home that evening he said that a little boy broke his leg during karate. I didn’t think much of it because he was walking fine. The next morning he still complained of leg pain and I just thought it could be growing pains. The next morning he was limping very little and had a very small bump on the outside of his left knee. I decided to take him to see the doctor because maybe he had a fracture from karate two days prior. The pediatrician asked if Dominic had been having any fevers, to which I answered no, so she told me that what Dominic was having could be one of two things, a tumor or an infection, but since he had not experienced any fevers more than likely it was a tumor. She sent him to get x-rays to another building and we were told that the pediatrician would call me with the results. I took Dominic back to school and I went back home. A few hours later I received a call from radiology asking if the pediatrician had called me with the results yet and I said no, then they proceeded to tell me that I needed to contact the pediatrician. I called the pediatrician and left a message. A few minutes later the pediatrician called me back to tell me that I needed to take Dominic  to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital ER, right then I knew something was very wrong and that our lives would change forever. 

I picked Dominic up from school and went straight  to the ER at Vanderbilt  Children’s Hospital and I met my husband  there. They ran another x-ray and an MRI and then an oncologist came to talk to us, she notified us that Dominic had a tumor but he needed to have a biopsy. She said that they would call me to set up the biopsy. We were in shock and disbelief, so much that my husband kept a positive mindset saying that it could be a benign tumor. When we got home I couldn’t sleep so I read over the discharge papers and saw the word Osteosarcoma. I talked to my uncle who’s a doctor and he told me that they could diagnose him until they had a biopsy. 

Dominic was so naive that he even told me that he had really liked the “hotel” we went to because they treated him very well. He got his first “surgery” a week later which was the biopsy and it confirmed that he had cancer, Osteosarcoma. We had to explain to him that he was sick and that he was going to need treatment. We all met with his Oncologist, Dr. Borinstein and Orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Halpern. Dr. Borinstein told us that Dominic would receive  chemotherapy, then in April he would get the tumor removed, which included removing some of the femur and his knee. Dr Halpern told us that we had 3 options, amputation, a donor bone or a prosthetic metal rod placement. My husband and I thought that the prosthetic would be the best option for our Dominic. A week later he was scheduled for surgery to get his port placed and to start chemo right after. 

We went home and decided  to go ahead and buzz his hair off, but my husband took him to his regular barber to do it. Dominic was in tears the whole time, he didn’t understand what was happening. Chemotherapy started and Dominic was sick the whole time, but he was very strong. He met a little boy at the hospital who had Ewingsarcoma and Dominic would give him words of encouragement. He turned 8 on March 3rd but was very hard for him to celebrate because he was very nauseous. April came and Dominic had a 7 and half hour surgery. He woke up in a lot of pain and angry. Dominic couldn’t walk, he had to use a wheelchair and a walker. Dominic is a very strong boy, he surprised  us all because he relearned to walk very fast with his walker, and since he hated the wheelchair and the walker, he started walking by himself soon after surgery. Finally September, this is when Dominic started remission. Unfortunately cancer left Dominic with hearing aids, and unable to run again and play contact sports, which he loves very much, but What a trooper he is! Dominic remained in remission for a whole year until we got devastated news again during one of his 3 month appointments, the oncologist was concerned about a spot in his left lung. In December 2023 it was confirmed that Dominic had a metastasis, he had relapsed. Dominic was very upset and sad. My husband and I decided to treat this disease as aggressive as possible. Dominic had a surgery in January 2023 to remove the nodule that was in his left lung. He also had another surgery to place the port in chest again since it had been removed towards the end of 2022 and then he started chemotherapy once again. Again, we were back in the hospital living there for 5 days at a time. But, Dominic remained positive most of the time. He did ask one time that if he died what would his funeral be like, as a mom this is the worst question a child could ask, so I just told him that I was his mom and couldn’t even begin to imagine that. Six rounds of chemotherapy is what we kept on saying, and we kept on counting down. This time Dominic wasn’t so sick, he actually didn’t get sick at all. He lost his hair, eye lashes and eyebrows. The last hospital admission for chemotherapy hit him really hard, he got very sick, but all we kept on saying is that it was the last chemo and that was it. A week later Dominic had a chest CT and thank God it was clear, this was truly a miracle, something that we (and many other people) had been praying for. Dominic was back in remission! This was in June of 2024. Dominic’s hair isn’t back yet, it’s taking longer to grow back. We are still aware that this can come back, but we take it one day at a time and try to love each other very much, we try to make memories everyday as each day is a gift of God. 

Dominic is now 10 and has been through a lot, but he is a true warrior. He will continue to fight if he has to because his David is bigger than this Goliath”.