All in for Jack
March 28, 2019
Jack loves to hang out with his friends, go skiing when available, playing sports, has a job at Farotto’s, and of course girls. That was what he did after his homework, during his free time, and on the weekends. Now after his diagnosis, his life mostly consists of sleeping and waiting, but he tries his best to do what he can.
“I still work at Farotto’s but I have only done a couple of shifts, I’m still able to do some stuff, not any heavy lifting but, busing tables and helping around as much as I can,” Jack said. “And even if I felt well enough to play sports I wouldn’t have the endurance, I’d be exhausted after a lap around the field.”
However, the thing that has been most affected is his school work. After doing a round of chemotherapy Jack may just feel too weak or tired to go to school and is also at risk of getting sick. The teachers have been modifying his work load. Teachers and counselors have reached out to Jack personally multiple times to either see how he’s doing or to help with homework.
“Most teachers are being very understanding and amazing,” Jack said. “Sometimes I just won’t go to school that entire week, because I just won’t be feeling that well or my blood counts that judge my immune system’s ability to fight infections will be too low.”
Jack goes to his scheduled chemotherapy treatments and sits in a chair while the doctors hook him up to tubes that send the chemo through him. Jack’s chemo schedule requires three days in a row of chemo infusions, and then another infusion four days after the last one. So an example would be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday infusions and another infusion on the following Tuesday .
Jack with his friends all wearing the newly received Jack Gardner hats.
He sits there for hours watching movies, sleeping, and looking through gifts.
“The actual chemo going through is a lot less stressful and scary than I thought it was,” Jack said. “The days in the hospital are not the worst days, it’s when it hits my system that I will get more symptoms of the chemo like the feeling nausea and a loss of appetite.”
Jack tries his best to do the activities that take his mind off of things. He will hang with his friends as much as he can, see a movie occasionally, and play video games. However, most of the time he doesn’t have it in him or won’t be allowed to.
“On a daily basis I think of really just like my life’s on hold for a while, I mean I’m a pretty active guy, I do a lot of sports,” Jack said. “Putting that on hold, putting friends on hold, school on hold, to go in and fight this battle, so it just feels like everything is on pause.”
Jack walking down the hospital hallways while carrying his machine.
Even though Jack has to put his friends on hold, they push through. Friends will send care packages the night before Jack goes in for chemotherapy, which are full of goodies, pictures, homemade cards, comics, and anything Jack might like. Friends and other families have also created wristbands that say, “#allin4jack” and hats with his initials on them. Finally, other families are generous enough to bring dinner for the Gardners nightly.
“They’re always there, always someone to talk to,” Jack said. “Seeing those people wearing the wristbands shows me that that person is thinking of me, I also know that that is someone I can go to, someone that will always support me, someone to talk to and I know they’re a true friend.”
Just like his friends, his sisters and brothers make as much time as they can to hang with Jack. They play the occasional game of fortnite and call of duty, and puzzles will be left on the ground waiting to be finished.
“He’s a good brother, we joke around a lot,” Jack’s little sister Corrina said. “He’s pretty cool I guess.”