Matthew Carrat's son Alex has a fastest type growing cancer in his stomach. Photo/George Novak
Matthew Carrat's son Alex has a fastest type growing cancer in his stomach. Photo/George Novak
When 6-year-old Alex Carratu complained of an "ouchy" stomach and his father discovered a lump the size of three tennis balls, he feared it was "as horrid as it gets".
It was.
Alex has been diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma and is now battling the disease three hours away from his Tauranga home, at Starship Children's Hospital, while his anxious family hope they can have their wee boy home for Christmas.
His mother, Claudia, five months' pregnant, is by Alex's side in Auckland while father Matthew is taking care of the family's four other children, juggling his job as an osteopath, and travelling back and forth to Auckland to visit his son.
Last month, Alex started complaining of stomach pains. The family had just returned from a holiday to their native home, the United Kingdom, and everybody had slight ailments from the long trip.
"Alex would say his stomach was a bit 'ouchy'. We would give him a hug and he would be OK. He'd be back on the trampoline, bouncing around, it just started off as simple as that," Mr Carratu said.
But the complaints became more regular.
"It was always at night, about 3am he would come into our bedroom."
Matthew Carratu's son Alex has a fastest type growing cancer in his stomach. Photo/George Novak
On Friday, July 17, Mr Carratu did a physical examination of his son's stomach. The osteopath moved his fingers across the soft skin of Alex's stomach, gently pushing and feeling the insides - at his belly button he found a large lump he described as a parent's worst nightmare.
"I have been doing pediatrics muscular skeletal care, looking after babies and children for 25 years, and it's the last thing you expect.
"Underneath his tummy button was every red flag I've ever read about in the last 25 years and every nasty you see four or five times a year with patients ... this is as horrid as it gets."
Mr Carratu said he knew it was cancer when he felt a lump the size of three tennis balls.
He took his son to the emergency department at Tauranga Hospital, and he was then transferred to Starship in Auckland.
Alex was then diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma.
"Between a day and three days, it doubles. It's the fastest growing tumour there is. From the time he went into Tauranga ED to Starship it had grown up to his chest. It filled his tummy space, up to his sternum and started to get into his lungs.
"Bowels being pushed to one side and being infiltrated. His tummy squashed down about a third of its normal size ... There is about 3kg of tumour."
Alex has completed his first round of chemotherapy and has just started his second.
He is due for two more 21-day rounds before Christmas, the strongest dose Alex's body can handle.
However, a CT scan during his first round of chemotherapy showed the tumour had started to retreat.
"I couldn't feel the gnarly bits any more. It wasn't intruding, gripping and twisting and pushing out. It's no longer growing, it's no longer winning."
Doctors hope to see only scars left after his third round of chemo.
"No evidence of tumour cells. If that is the case, they will do one more round and stop. If at the end of the third round there are cells there, it gets very unpleasant."
Mr Carratu said the support from the Tauranga community had been overwhelming, including complete strangers offering to deliver the family meals.
"It's a really special community, it makes a big difference."
A Givealittle page had also been set up to help the family.
With Mr Carratu at home in Tauranga with his other four children, working part-time and driving to Auckland every weekend, and another baby due in December, things had been tough.
Yet, if Alex comes out of his ordeal relatively unscathed the 49-year-old father wants to use the money to help set up a fund for a 24-hour service which would hire qualified medics who could order hospital-grade testing free for concerned parents, like he was.
Alex's hair has started to fall out and he is due to start his second round of chemotherapy this weekend, but fingers are crossed he will make it home to Tauranga for Christmas.
"Alex is lovely guy, he's very private, which people interpret as shy, but he just takes his time. He's very graceful and kind and he's a real go-to for a hug," Mr Carratu said.
A hug which his father drove 197km to get on Friday night.
