Windham High School student Hunter
Loring has spent the majority of his junior year in the hospital. Halfway
through the soccer season this past fall, he had to stop playing because of the
pain in his back. When he no longer could walk, stand or sit, muscle relaxers
didn’t work and hot and cold didn’t touch the pain, he went to the doctors.
After an MRE, doctors found two cancerous tumors wrapped around the nerves in
his lower back.
“The tumors he had were in there a long
time,” said Hunter’s mom, Wendy Loring. “It has been weird from the beginning.”
The tumors were taken out and tested. The rare tumor, called Myxopapillary
Ependymoma, is more often found in 40- to 50-year-olds. The doctors at Maine
Medical Center said they had never seen a kid with this type of cancer, Wendy
said.
Since the fall, Hunter has had two major
back surgeries and has been under anesthesia eight times, six of those so that
he could relax enough to be in the MRI machine. He is on constant pain
medication and is only now able to walk 300 yards, with the medication. He
started radiation to kill the cancer cells, but wasn’t able to do it
consistently, so they suspended that until he could try to get his pain under
control.
Hunter is not able to sit in a chair or
lay flat, according to Wendy. He now can sit up to 30 degrees in his bed.
After the second surgery, the family was
told that Hunter would be back on the slopes snowboarding before the end of the
season. Hunter has been disappointed that this hasn’t happened. “He thinks it’s
never going to happen. The chronic pain scares him,” said Wendy. “This is one
chapter in our life. We’ll get through it.”
His family has been looking for a
facility where Hunter can do inpatient pain management therapy, occupational
therapy, physical therapy and counseling, all in addition to radiation. “He
needs so many other things that go with the radiation,” said Wendy. Once the
radiation begins he will need 24 treatments over five or six weeks.
Hunter has been at Maine Medical
Center’s Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital wing since January 14, unable to go
home while waiting for a bed in a pediatric hospital that can meet all of his
needs. He has had some of his friends come in to visit him, which he likes. He
plays X-Box, but he isn’t able to keep up with his school work, nor is he able
to continue participating in the culinary arts program in Westbrook. “That’s
what got him to go to school,” Wendy said.
Wendy, an administrative assistant in
the RSU14 superintendent’s office, has had to take time off to spend time in
the hospital with Hunter. She also works two other jobs that she’s had to cut
back on. She has had her car packed to travel to the nearest hospital that has
the care that Hunter needs since January 31. The cost of some of the
rehabilitation hospitals average $2,700 a day per bed. The Loring’s have
insurance, but it won’t cover the whole expense.
Michael, Hunter’s father, works for
Walmart’s distribution center.
“It’s just exhausting,” Wendy said, of
trying to keep up with work, Hunter and their oldest son, Tyler, who is 21.
To help the family with the mounting
medical bills, friends have arranged a spaghetti supper and auction fundraiser
on March 12 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Windham High School cafeteria.
Donations will be accepted at the door. Volunteers have been stepping up and
the coordinators, a group of five, have been successful in getting donations
for the silent auction. The LEO Club from WHS has volunteered to
put on a cake auction the same night.
Kellie Sampson, Wendy’s co-worker, has
taken the point in the fundraiser. She wanted to help with the dinner, “because
she’s my friend and because I care about her and her family.” The hope is to
raise between $3,000 and $4,000. All proceeds will go to the Loring family.
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“It’s taken on a life of its own.
Everyone wants to help,” Sampson said.
Hunter and his family are hoping for a
pediatric, inpatient hospital that can give him all of the services and therapy
he needs, but so far they are striking out. At some facilities, they only have
outpatient care, but Wendy said that Hunter can’t ride to get to the hospital
every day. At others he’s on a waiting list with 40 people ahead of him. One
hospital is in Ohio and Hunter won’t be able to get on a plane, she said. “We’re
stuck.”
“It’s going to be a long, slow process,”
Wendy said. “He’s in less pain because he’s on more drugs. It’s the worst thing
to watch,” she added. Dealing with the
chronic pain has been one of the hardest parts for Hunter.
“There are not a lot of places to take
kids with chronic pain,” Wendy said. “We’re playing it day by day,” said Wendy.
“We’re moving to get new eyes and ears on the problems.”
Hunter started a consultation for
radiation this past week at MMC.
“I’m a believer that things happen for a
reason,” Wendy said. She’s hoping for the best.
Donations can be made by check to Norma
J. Huntley/Hunter Loring Benefit, TD Bank, NA, Mailstop, ME 2-076-031, PO Box
9540, Portland, ME 04112-9540. There is a GoFundMe page set up.
