Braylin's battle: 2-year-old plagued with eye cancer since infancy
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Patience is a virtue the Coville family has been learning about for nearly two and a half years — ever since the youngest member, Braylin, was born. As an infant, Braylin was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rapidly growing cancer in the retina, the light-detecting tissue of the eye. He’s been in and out of hospitals for chemotherapy, laser treatments and radiation his whole young life, and every time it seems that the little patient is out of the woods, a new tumor appears.
In November, the cycle began again. After nine months cancer-free, a spot showed up on Braylin’s right eye, and then another. February brought the most terrifying development yet in the young boy’s battle with cancer: a tumor had formed next to the optic nerve in his left eye, where it could all too easily spread to his brain. It was the first time retinoblastoma had actually threatened Braylin’s life.
“I just felt like my whole world caved in,” 18-year-old sister Shayna said of the discovery.
“Everything just went crazy,” mom Heather added. “Talk about a long week … A lot of people think because it’s eye cancer, it can’t have the same effect as any other cancer, but that’s not true.”
She’s no stranger to the disease, as both she and daughter Shayna battled retinoblastoma as children. But when Heather and her husband Dan found out she was pregnant again, they hoped their youngest son would be healthy like his 10-year-old brother Brindan.
That wasn’t to be. Like his mother and sister, Braylin was diagnosed with the bilateral version of the disease, meaning he had tumors behind both eyes, at times as many as six or seven on one eye. After spending his whole life in and out of hospitals in Missoula, Portland, Ore., and Spokane, Wash., doctors said in February 2011 that the tumor in Braylin’s right eye was gone, giving the family hope that Braylin’s ordeal with the disease was over. That changed in November, and now the family’s back to playing the same game of “hurry up and wait” that’s become the norm over the past couple of years, Heather explained.
“It’s just a whole lot of what we’ve always done,” she said.
“(Braylin) was just about ready to get his (chemo) port taken out; now we’ve gotta wait at least a year (from the last tumor),” Dan explained.
Heather was diagnosed with the cancer at age 2, and after six years of chemotherapy, radiation and cryotherapy, a treatment that freezes tumors, doctors had to remove her right eye since a tumor growing behind it was beginning to press on her brain. Heather is now legally blind. With Shayna, who was diagnosed at only a month old, the damage wasn’t as extensive. She underwent treatment until doctors removed her chemo port just before her third birthday, and while she lost central vision in her right eye, her peripheral vision is fine, and her left eye is almost normal. So far, Braylin’s fared better than either his mom or sister; his vision was still unimpaired at the last check, Heather said.
If an April 17 visit to Braylin’s doctors in Portland produces a good report, Dan and Heather won’t have to make that trip again for a while, a relief in more ways than one. Traveling to Portland for treatment is a huge financial burden for the family — the last trip cost more than $500 just for motels and gas — and Dan has to take time off from his job as a mechanic at D&M Repair in Pablo. Thankfully, boss Don Pierce has always been understanding and done all he could to ease the situation.
“I still can’t get over how good Don is,” Heather said.
Living in a small community like Charlo, where the Covilles moved last year from St. Ignatius, a lot of people know about Braylin’s illness. Family members sometimes get stopped by people they don’t even know who ask about Braylin, a touching gesture for the Covilles.
“It’s different, but it’s awesome,” Shayna said. “People actually care.”
“It makes you smile,” Heather added.
One of the people who care is Leon Weider, a 2009 Arlee High School graduate who founded “Spur the Cancer Out of Montana,” a fundraising effort for fighting cancer. Weider rode his horse across Montana last year to raise money for the cause, and he’ll be doing that again this year, starting his journey after Memorial Day weekend. Weider’s also planning a rodeo event with bull and bronc-riding and barrel racing to take place May 26 in Arlee. And when he found out about Braylin, Weider decided to donate the majority of the money he raises through his cross-state ride and the rodeo to help pay for Braylin’s treatment expenses.
Braylin will be the star of the rodeo, Weider noted, and will get to ride around the arena on horseback. Heather’s already had Braylin fitted for a cowboy hat for the occasion.
“We found a pretty cute pair of boots I think we’re gonna have to go get, (too),” she said.
Watching the rodeo will be a treat for Braylin, whose latest interests include bull riding and monster trucks. His favorite activity is probably riding his rocking horse, which he does with great enthusiasm, yelling, “Wee, wee, wee,” at the top of his lungs.
He’s also “scarily accurate” with a dart gun (shooting foam darts, of course) and enjoys anything with wheels, especially taking toy cars apart, a trait he gets from his mechanically-minded father, Heather noted.
It’s a relief for the family to see Braylin acting like a “normal” 2-year-old, even when that means he’s extra rowdy.
“He’s ornery,” Heather said, smiling. “That’s a good thing, though; he’s been through so much I don’t know what he would do if he wasn’t ornery.”
