An update on Brooks 6-15-07

This is the best way to update all our friends in racing about why Brooks hasn’t been racing WKA, SKUSA, or any Regional or KRA races and how he is doing. We are fortunate to have made so many friends in the 7 years racing karts but not enough time to make & take all the calls to those friends to explain. Thanks for all the support and concern. See you all soon!

Many of you know and many don’t know that Brooks has been very sick over the past couple months and really bad over the last 3 weeks. Originally thinking that he had Mono or some strange Virus that was dragging him down, Brooks wound up in the Hospital a little over a week ago in pretty bad shape dropping from 84lbs to a shocking weight of 67 pounds. Dr. Wolfe, our family physician, at first thought it may be Leukemia or a GI disorder due to his elevated white blood cell count and lowered red cell count or anemia. There were also a few other possibilities but the L word or any type cancer scared Linda and I to death and sent us preparing for the worst. With Dr. Wolfe's' recommendation, Brooks was transferred from St. Francis Hospital to Riley Children’s Hospital and placed in the care of Doctor Lim one of the best GI Pediatric Physicians in the US and definitely on the #1 GI Team in the country. After extensive blood work along with a Cat Scan, Leukemia was ruled out but not Lymphoma. Tests showed a probability of an Inflammatory Bowel Disease of some kind causing most of the symptoms. Brooks went back in to Riley on Monday for surgery doing some exploratory procedures isolating the problem. During the procedures they mapped his GI Track and did several biopsies to confirm some things and rule out others. Great News….. No Cancer of any kind! What was confirmed is that Brooks has an Autoimmune Disease of the Intestines called Crohns Disease. Without going into the long, the short is Crohns is an Autoimmune Disease which means that it is not contagious in any way; it is simply where your body turns on the repair process for fighting a virus or infection and then can’t turn it off causing the body to attack itself. Crohns like all autoimmune, are life long, but with Crohns when caught early, like with Brooks, it is treatable and forced to remission for months to years between relapses. About 140,000 kids are diagnosed with Crohns or other IBD’s (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) in the US. Brooks starts the forced remission process today and returns to Riley for an additional Cat Scan procedure this Friday. His recovery from the anemia, weight loss, bone loss, and energy loss should only take about 3 months to get back to his normal energetic self. For all of you that know him, he is the Ice Man when walking onto the grid, no emotions before and no emotions after win or lose, and then when walking out of the scales, a transformation…..out comes Mr. Goofy! He has attacked his sickness the same way; he hasn’t had a pity party of any kind and has never worried for a minute about the potential of cancer, treatment or other diagnosis’. Linda and I couldn’t be more proud of him in how he has handled himself through this. He definitely has handled it better than his mother and me!

Parents, pay close attention to your kids. Brooks’ changes were slow and subtle. From the weight loss to his skin turning yellow, we saw it every day but didn’t see the changes at first. Back at the end of April at the KRA race at New Caste. When we rolled Brooks’ Cadet across the scale it was 11 pounds under weight from the year before. Since we don’t run Cadet much I assumed I had snagged some lead off for his shifter or Mini-Sprint and had forgotten. Then when we brought the Yamaha JrSp over the scales and it too was light by 10 pounds. At that point I realized that the driver was light not the karts. Rather than taking him to the doctor we chalked it up to him losing all his baby fat as he had grown 2 inches since Christmas. He said he felt great so he couldn’t be sick. That lasted until the end of May. Just keep an eye on them because sometimes there are problems that living with them can’t be seen because they progress so slowly. Just my thoughts as a parent.

Long term; Brooks will be just fine and will lead a normal life in every way. He is going crazy not being able to race and can’t wait to be back to mixing it up on the track before the end of the year! He actually still has his Pit Pass on (see pic) from that race and refuses to take it off! We may be able to get him into the Race for Riley Children’s Hospital next month if his treatment is going well. Brooks had circled that date on the calendar since last year. He finished 3rd the first R4R, then finished 2nd in last years R4R after leading it 4 or 5 times and almost winning it in a drag race with his buddy Tilley to the finish line. So this year Brooks was going back to win it and raise money and awareness for the kids! Think about this for a second, this year Brooks returns not as just an advocate for Riley Children’s Hospital, but as an active patient of Riley’s. For me that gives me the chills. And let me tell you first hand, Riley Children’s Hospital is the Best of the Best in everyway. They spare no costs and have no limits in Technology or Treatments. You are not a number to them or a patient to them. They treat your kid like they were their own kid. From the check in folks to the Physicians, they make every step a comforting one and they keep you up to date with every inch of every step. They realize that it most cases, the parents are more of a mess then the kids are so they treat the worry at every step. And for the kids, they won’t let them get scared; they have a way that makes the procedures seem non-threatening and old hat….. Except for the needles Brooks said, IV’s, blood, blood and more blood, Yikes!

Thank You Riley!

See you at the Race next month!
Brooks, Mom & Dad

Brooks and Dad at the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Race at ORP in Indy before the Brickyard 400            Update 7-27-07

Brooks is doing much better, not recovered but definitely better.  He is now 6 weeks into an 18 week steroid treatment to force the Crohn's into remission.  The steroids have helped him gain the 16lbs he had lost plus some more for a total of 30lbs.  His anemia is better too, he can now climb stars and run a bit without getting out of breath.  So far his body is responding well to the amino suppressants which is a great sign....  knock knock on wood!  He had more blood work this week so hopefully the inflammation will continue to improve as well as his blood counts. 

Brooks has started on a limited training program that will progressively build him up for his return to the track sometime late Sept early October.  For now he is just getting ready for school to start in 3 weeks.  He said it will be nice to go to school without feeling bad and all the pain.  He has been handling all this great but he says he hates the weight he has gained.  Actually he says the weight is ok but the he says he hates the way it makes his face look.... "Chipmunk Cheeks" as he puts it.  But he knows there is a light at the end of the tunnel as he starts weaning off the steroids in 1 week.  During the 12 weeks of slowly reducing the medication the weight will just fall off and he will get back to normal. 

Brooks, Linda and I would like to thank all the people that have called, emailed, posted, and came to visit us during all of this.  People remembering him and recognizing that he wasn't around has made him feel great!  Brooks is a great kid and a great Racer and it aches us all having him parked.  At the Race 4 Riley last Wednesday a bunch of his friends, Cody Doyle, Chase Stempfley, Kyle Tilley, Cameron Smock, Jared Thomas and many parents and strangers, all came to see him a hang out for a bit.  A kid named Colin Campbell, whom Brooks really doesn't know very well, got him a dog tag with his name on it and a poster of the Colts Cheerleaders and brought it to him.  Brooks thought that was cool!  But most important to Brooks, he said was seeing his friends, smelling the race fuel, and watching some racing!  And of course "hitting the Race Grill"  Brooks said!  "With these steroids you don't pass on a chance to eat!, trust me" 

Brooks' friend Chase helped a lot.  He too had to be on Prednisone Steroid, twice I think, and gained a ton of weight just like Brooks is.  He shared his experiences of mood swings, sweats, joint pain and of course the weight.  I don't think Chase realized how much those conversations meant to Brooks!  Thanks Chase from Linda and I!

See you all soon!
Brooks, Mom & Dad

NASCAR Truck Race 7-27-07   
 

Brooks in the Hospital 6-15-07

www.race4riley.com/
www.BrooksLevy.com
www.ucandcrohns.org
Email Brooks at Brooks@CarmelMortgage.com