ShawneeDispatch.com

At first, Josh Putthoff thought his 2 1/2-year-old son’s black eyes were just the result of a kid being a kid.

“We just thought he got hit with a ball or something,” he said. “But then, the week before he was diagnosed, he started throwing up. He didn’t have a fever, but we took him to the doctor — a couple of different doctors. They just thought it was some type of virus.”

It wasn’t until Gabe Putthoff’s regular visit to the eye doctor that his parents discovered what was going on.

“Once she saw him, even out in the waiting room, she brought us back immediately and ordered a CAT scan,” Josh recalled. “I don’t know if she knew exactly what was going on, but she knew something big was going on.”

Josh and his wife, Trisha Putthoff, soon discovered their son had tumor in his sinuses caused by neuroblastoma.

“We were thinking, ‘OK, he’s got cancer. A tumor in his head,’” Josh said. “But this type of cancer doesn’t start in the head, it starts in the adrenal gland. And so in the next couple of weeks we just kind of got hit by bombshell after bombshell.”

Josh and Trisha found out the cancer was in Gabe’s head, adrenal gland and bone marrow and that Gabe was in the final stage of cancer — stage four.

“It was a bad weekend,” Josh said.

Gabe, who is now 3, was given a 35 to 50 percent chance to live, which seemed positive for Josh and Trisha.

“We expected it to be worse,” Josh said.

Anchor of faith

When Josh, who is the associate music pastor at Crossroads Christian Church in Shawnee, first learned about Gabe’s illness, he said he was angry with God.

“We never lost our faith, but there were times where we questioned how could God let this happen to us, and that was our emotions speaking,” he said. “It’s the only time in my life I’ve ever been able to really relate to Job.”

Despite his frustrations, Josh said he appreciated having God in his life while going through Gabe’s cancer treatments.

“Seeing families go through this without the Lord in their lives or without the hope of eternity — I can’t imagine what that is like,” he said. “It’s got to be 100 times worse because all along, no matter how tough things have gotten for us, we’ve known all along if the worst were to happen to Gabe, if he wouldn’t be able to beat this cancer, we would get to spend all of eternity with him. That has been really the anchor of our faith.”

Gabe’s experience with cancer also has changed how Josh wants to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ.

“Right now we are tired so it’s hard to focus on others,” he said. “I have a feeling that after all this is over and we’ve made it through the storm, I think we are going to be just different people.

“There is a sense of urgency to tell others about Jesus. It’s been a good reminder that this life here is temporary and relatively short.”

Shoulders to lean on

When church members at Crossroads learned about Gabe’s illness, they let the Putthoffs use a laptop computer to develop a Web site, www.caringbridge.org/visit/gabeputthoff, to keep family and friends updated. As of Monday the site had received almost 89,000 visits from family and friends. Site visitors have left more than 2,000 messages for Gabe and his family.

“It has lessened e-mails, phone calls and visits, so I can spend more time doing other things,” Trisha said. “My goal is to make a book out of it when all this is done and print it off for him to read when he’s older.”

Since Gabe’s diagnosis in August, there has been no end to the support Josh and Trisha have received from the Crossroads congregation and the Olathe School District, where Trisha is an instructional resource teacher.

Students have made cards, and donations to Gabe. The congregation has offered its services by baby-sitting the Putthoffs’ 11-month-old son Jax, mowing their yard, cooking dinners and donating money to help them with their finances.

“The church has gone above and beyond what we would have ever expected,” Josh said. “We cannot keep up with thank yous because people have done so much for us.”

When the congregation found out how many blood transfusions Gabe needed and how sometimes his O Negative blood type wasn’t available, they organized a blood drive in his honor March 2. The 80 time slots to donate filled up the first day the sign up sheet was passed around, Crossroads coordinator Angie Johnston said.

“I was so excited, that’s when we planned another drive,” she said.

The first blood drive collected 80 units of blood, which will help 160 people.

Johnston said there are still slots available for walk-ins at its second blood drive that will be from 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Crossroads, 5855 Renner Road, Shawnee.

“People really just stepped up and have definitely pulled together as a family — as a church family,” Johnston said.

Trisha said her family loved the idea of the blood drives because they would help so many other people.

“We have gotten to know several little friends and families battling cancer,” she said. “Giving blood not only saves people’s lives, but when someone has cancer it buys them time.”

Road to recovery

Since Gabe was diagnosed, he has received seven chemotherapy treatments, with the last one being the most severe to prepare him for his stem cell transplant. Because of his chemotherapy treatments, Gabe has had to receive several units of blood.

“One of the many side effects of chemo is it destroys cells,” Josh said. “It doesn’t just destroy cancer cells like they hope it does, but it also destroys red and white blood cells.”

After two chemotherapy treatments, doctors took stem cells from Gabe’s bone marrow so they could later do a stem cell transplant.

Gabe was admitted for the transplant Jan.31 and has been home for about three weeks.

Since the stem cell treatment, his immune system is fragile, so Gabe can’t go to church and the family tries to limit visitors, Josh said. Those that do visit have to be healthy.

Trisha said she already has seen a difference in Gabe’s demeanor since he has been home from the stem cell transplant.

“I look back and I think he was so not himself since August,” Trisha said at the family’s home Friday.

Soon Gabe will have to go through radiation, and he will have five months of weekly antibody treatments.

However, Josh said they aren’t in the clear just yet.

“That’s the tough thing about this cancer,” he said. “Neuroblastoma is notorious for relapsing, and so there is never really a point where you can kind of take a deep breath.

For the next four or five years he will get scans every three months just to make sure its gone. So, in about five years from now we could be in the clear.

Although a feeding tube is attached to Gabe providing him nutrients until he can eat regular food again, he was active at home, swinging a bat as his mom lobbed him a ball.

“I want to be a baseball player,” Gabe said.

When Trisha made a bad pitch, Gabe squealed and made her try again, a seemingly typical 3-year-old.

“This is the true Gabe,” Trisha said with a grin.

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