Hi everyone,
Mackenzie Newsome is like so many 3-year-old girls.
She’ll drop everything for a princess story or a pink-frosted doughnut. And a summer trip to Hershey Park, well, that’s always a winner.
What’s better than chocolate, after all, except maybe pink-frosted chocolate.
On the other hand, this beautiful little girl from Danbury is unlike any princess you’ve ever met.
Sure, she has the magical smile and the dream-catching eyelashes that take her to Hershey Park in the winter.
But Mackenzie, who is fighting to reach 30 pounds these days, also has a softball-sized mass inside her chest.
The doctors call it a germ cell tumor, a malignant monster that’s growing by the day and growing by the minute.
It’s pressing against the front and back of her body. It’s moving toward her lungs and airways with the deliberate evil of Stage 4 cancer.
“We’re very scared — we’re terrified, actually — but we’ve got to find a cure for this,” said Melissa Newsome, Mackenzie’s mother. “We’re going to do whatever it takes.”
The cancer is so rare, Melissa said, the doctors at Yale-New Haven have referred Mackenzie to the Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center in Boston.
Any moment now, just like when Mackenzie was kicking inside her mother in August 2008, it will be off to the races and off to the hospital.
Only this time, the department will be pediatric oncology, not maternity. There’s a huge difference, you see, between having your water break and having your heart break.
“I used to worry about money and how we were going to pay our bills,” said Melissa, who is on unpaid leave from her job as a nursing assistant at Danbury Hospital.
“But when something like this happens — when your child gets sick like this — it just puts everything in perspective.”
In jarring, life-changing perspective.
Mackenzie’s early symptoms appeared last August, her mother said. There was a nagging cough, a sore throat, a scratchy voice and persistent fevers.
First, the diagnosis was croup. Then it was a respiratory infection. Then it was asthma, or possibly, scoliosis.
Over the next few months, it seemed no one really knew what was wrong. The only certainty was that Mackenize was sick. And she was getting sicker.
There were prescriptions for Prednisone and albuterol, the medicine delivered by rescue inhalers. But the pills and puffs didn’t help for long.
Finally, a trip to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital changed everything, after a Feb. 28 CT scan showed a tumor inside Mackenzie’s little chest.
“At first, we were afraid of the uncertainty,” said Nancy Lahoud, Mackenzie’s grandmother. “Now, we have a new fear.“
And yet, as the fears and the bills mount side-by-side, there’s no shortage of local fundraisers for Mackenzie and her family.
City employees offered their hearts and wallets right away, from Nancy’s friends in the finance office to Mike’s pals in the highway department, where — at the worst possible time — he’s about to be laid off as a seasonal employee.
The Department of Public Works will hold a benefit pasta dinner March 31 at the Danbury Moose Lodge on Boulevard Drive. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids.
The Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Department in Bethel, the Dubl Twister ice cream shop in Danbury, Escape Salon & Spa in Bethel and others have also booked benefits for Mackenzie.
If you prefer, contributions can be sent to “Prayers for Mackenzie Newsome” at 36 Tamarack Ave., Suite 339, Danbury, CT 06811, an account that’s been set up to help pay for the family’s medical costs.
On a recent morning, as Mackenzie sat snuggled in her grandmother’s arms, her 15-month-old brother, Jacob, bolted from one side of the living room to the next. Mackenzie lifted her head up for a moment, but quickly closed her eyes again.
Nancy likes to call her granddaughter, “Kenzie.” It’s a sweet nickname, the kind of love lozenge that comforts and protects a sick child.
Nancy described Mackenzie’s current symptoms this way: “She’s very tired. She’s lost weight. She has no appetite. She’s sweating.
“She’s in P-A-I-N but she doesn’t want you to know it. And she’s really sad. She’s just a different kid.”
On Thursday night, for the first time in more than a week at the hospital, the Newsome family slept together under their own roof.
All at once, it was wonderful and terrifying.
It was great to be home, of course. But the 24-hour safety net at Yale-New Haven was gone now, loosely tethered to a 911 call and an ambulance ride, if needed.
And there’s no getting used to it — not these days, not ever.
“We just want our Mackenzie back,” Nancy said softly, but firmly. “That’s all we want. That’s all we’ve ever wanted.”
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Some upcoming benefits for Mackenzie Newsome
- Dubl Twister: March 28, 6 to 9 p.m., all proceeds benefit Mackenzie, Dubl Twister, 164 White St., Danbury
- Danbury DPW: March 31, 4 to 8 p.m., pasta dinner, $10 adults, $5 kids under 12, Danbury Moose Lodge, 75 Boulevard Drive, Danbury
- Stony Hill VFD: March 31, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., boot/bucket drive at intersection of Route 6 and Old Hawleyville Road, Bethel
- Escape Salon & Spa: April 15, “Cut-A-Thon for Mackenzie,” 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 232 Greenwood Ave., Bethel
- More fundraiser information: www.facebook.com/events/243145365774756/
I will be hosting a BENEFIT BAKE SALE for MACKENZIE NEWSOME at Danbury Hospital NEXT THURSDAY MARCH 22ND FROM 10AM-2PM, please contact me for further details. My cell is 203-788-1871 (text or call)