Family to sponsor musical benefit

The family’s life was suddenly upside down.

BY JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Mikael Pridon woke up one Monday morning to pain in his legs and a completely changed life.

It was Jan. 9, 2006, and the end of normal for Mikael, then 12, and his parents, Steve and Janice Pridon of Bessemer, Pa.

Mikael didn’t go to school that day. He stayed home and rested on the couch while Janice figured that, by the next day, the strange pain would pass.

It did not.

Mikael went to the family’s doctor in Boardman that Tuesday. On Wednesday he went to Forum Health Tod Children’s Hospital in Youngstown to visit an oncologist. He never left the hospital for the next 10 days — his fight against acute lymphoblastic leukemia had begun.

It would continue for three years. Mikael endured countless needle sticks that included 25 to 30 spinal taps. His immune system, weakened by chemotherapy, couldn’t fight common viral infections without help from yet another stay at the hospital.

He’s been hospitalized for infections 12 to 15 times, Steve estimated. When Make-A-Wish sent the family to Hawaii for a cruise of the islands in March 2007, Mikael spent five days hospitalized on Maui.

In February, a helicopter took him from Akron Children’s Hospital’s Boardman campus to the hospital in Akron, where he fought a 105-degree fever for three days.

“He got out on Saturday, was home at 2, and a few hours later he got another fever and went back to Beeghly Campus until Wednesday,” Steve said.

Oral chemo continued from the start — Mikael figures that at the height of it, he was taking 26 pills a day. A port was put in his chest under his skin through which he also received chemo injections.

He went to school about 50 percent of the time because of his compromised immune system. He often couldn’t go out, and friends couldn’t visit.

There were circumstances, though, that made the bad times easier to handle, his parents said.

Mikael’s leukemia was caught early, and the prognosis was better, they said, with that leg pain the blessing in disguise.

“It’s one of the more rare symptoms,” said Steve, adding that cold-like symptoms are often the first sign of the disease.

“We might have let a cold go for weeks,” he said.

The doctors have been great, Janice said, and so has the school district. Tutors helped Mikael keep up with his studies at home, she said. Also, his parents said proudly, he got straight A’s throughout the whole ordeal.

The hospital has been helpful as well, with a social worker there hooking them up for the Hawaii trip, Janice said.

They did get to cruise in Hawaii for two days, seeing Pearl Harbor and taking a helicopter ride over a volcano, she said.

“And the view from the hospital was gorgeous,” Steve said, laughing, “though it wasn’t what we’d planned.”

Life for Mikael, now 15 and in ninth grade, is getting back to normal. His last chemotherapy treatment is Wednesday. He’ll go to the doctor once a week for awhile, then once every two weeks, then once every month, until finally, only once a year.

Giving up the chemotherapy, he said, is making him “a little bit nervous.”

But he’s looking forward to getting out of the house.

“It got a little crazy being at home all the time,” he said. “My parents are great, but 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’”

The port in his chest, which limited his physical activity, is coming out in June. The first thing he’d like to do after it’s gone, he said, is ride a roller coaster — a trip to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky is likely coming up, Steve said.

His parents are getting ready to celebrate, too, with a musical program at their church, First Presbyterian in New Castle. They’ve organized such a program every year, starting in 1993 to celebrate Mikael’s birth. They had them in churches they belonged to near Youngstown before they moved to Bessemer in 1999. The programs always benefited local charities.

This year, to mark the end of Mikael’s chemo, the donations they receive at the concert will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The concert will take place at the church, 125 N. Jefferson St., at 7 p.m. next Sunday — the beginning of back to normal for the Pridons.

starmack@vindy.com

IF YOU GO

The Pridon family of Bessemer, Pa., has organized a concert to celebrate the end of chemotherapy for Mikael Pridon. Everyone is invited, and donations will be accepted to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Where: First Presbyterian Church, 125 N. Jefferson St., New Castle, Pa.

When: 7 p.m. May 3.

Performers: Celebration Singers; Celebration Ringers; Sheet & Tube Brass Quartet; Faithful Bells; Joshua Foster, pianist; Calvin Lewis, violinist; Elizabeth Dick, flutist; David Mikesell, percussion; Rita Busin, soloist; Pastor Ray Hylton, soloist; Steve Pridon, soloist.

Dessert and beverages will be served afterward in Fellowship Hall.

Source: The Pridon family