Kimberly Norris
The Americus Times-Recorder
AMERICUS —
Three years ago, Creed Campbell and his family flew to a children’s hospital in Boston to have bloodwork done. This bloodwork was conducted in order to better understand reasons for the chronic illness that Creed had been experiencing since birth. Creed’s family found out later that he was born with monosomy 7/myelodysplasia, a condition in which the seventh chromosome is missing from an individual’s genetic construction. As a result, Creed has a compromised immune system as well as a compromised adrenal system.
“Thankfully, he didn’t contract leukemia,” said Creed’s maternal grandmother, Jean “Gi Gi” Dunn, of Plains.
Lately, Creed, now 5, has been receiving care from Egleston, the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta. Since his birth on Dec. 3, 2004, Creed has encountered illnesses which have caused him to be placed in a hospital for several days at a time, but the young boy is showing amazing signs of rapid recovery since his recent bone marrow transplant.
“He’s doing wonderful,” said Dunn. “If this continues as well as it is going, he’ll be able to go home this weekend. Right now, he’s about two weeks ahead of where we anticipated him being.”
Every Thursday after work, Dunn leaves from her workplace at Dr. Ray Duke’s dental office in Americus and goes to visit Creed and his mother, Stephanie Campbell, in Roswell, near Atlanta. She stays with them through Sunday.
“I go and stay with him on the weekends, and that gives Stephanie a break from the hospital,” said Dunn.
Dunn said that Creed has a very high pain tolerance, so it is sometimes difficult to judge whether or not he’s feeling a little bit sick or instead is feeling intense pain. She explained that Creed is a stem cell transplant patient. When he was matched for his bone marrow transplant, 200 possible matches were made for him. Out of the 200 people that were possible matches, six umbilical cords were chosen. Out of those six, two cords were perfect matches. Usually, one cord out of the two is accepted by the recipient.
“He was chosen to receive two cords. He had two chances at once,” said Dunn.
Creed is a very sociable child and has made friends with the people that he meets, his grandmother says. “He is very talkative; he talks with everybody,” Dunn said. Creed also loves animals and is fond of horse-riding. Dunn also said that her grandson loves four wheelers and motorcycles. “He loves school and can’t wait to ride the school bus.”
The Homebound program has a teacher visit Creed in the hospital for his schooling. His teacher visited recently and brought a laptop with photos of everyone in his class. His class participates in the “Monkey in My Chair” program, a program in which each day a child is given a monkey doll to care for throughout the day. Creed also has a monkey doll, and he is given a backpack where his notes are taken back to the school. Part of his work includes writing notes to his new friends at school.
“Creed and his mother go to Northpoint Church in Alpharetta. Dwight (Jean’s husband) and I go to Andrew Chapel UMC (United Methodist Church) in Americus. When Creed’s here, he attends Andrew Chapel. Jon, his dad, goes to Northpoint in Buckhead.”
Dunn said that the Emmaus community was instrumental in her grandson’s recovery. Since Creed’s bone transplant, he has experienced very mild side effects, and these have been few. According to Dunn, Creed has not experienced many of the pre-warned side effects. She attributes this amazing recovery to a church fasting which took place earlier this year for Lent.
“Back in January, our pastor came to church and said he received word from God that the church should go into a 40-day fast for Creed,” Dunn said. “Not only has he not experienced many of the side effects, but he’s also a good two weeks ahead of schedule at this point in his recovery.”
Creed has many supporters from various places. People from Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, California, Ohio, and even Canada have been praying for him. April Duke, Ray Duke’s wife, has made t-shirts in support of Creed, and Courtney Waggoner has made blue prayer bracelets that can be worn by supporters. A blog has also been created by two of Stephanie’s friends, Addie Bowen and Kathryn Mulkey, which chronicles news about Creed. Care pages on the hospital site were created by his mother.
Dunn said that there is a prayer pager at First Baptist Church which enables people to pray and call a number which will reach Creed’s room in the hospital.
“He knows how to pray, so when the pager goes off, he gets excited because he knows that someone is praying for him,” Dunn said.
Creed and his family were en route to a Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World in Florida earlier this year, but it had to be canceled when he had to go to the emergency room for three days. Since he didn’t finish, Creed will be given another opportunity next year to go back. He has also been a part of the Lighthouse Retreat, a program that allowed him to spend a week at the beach with his family. The condos used in this program are donated by the people of Northpoint Church, and families that are invited to stay are pampered for their entire stay.
“Stephanie is celebrating Creed’s new birthday as Aug. 23, the day that he had his bone marrow transplant,” said Dunn. On that day, nurses wore cone-shaped birthday hats and brought a cake for Creed, and musician Steve Fee came and sang his song, “Glory to God” along with Creed. It had everyone in tears.
“He’ll go home if all is well this coming weekend. He won’t be able to go out for several months, though,” Dunn said.
According to Dunn, Creed’s mother has been doing a lot to prepare her son for everything he must encounter. For example, before Creed lost his hair to conditions related to the bone marrow transplant, his mother asked him if he would like to shape his hair into a mohawk. The sides of Creed’s hair were cut very close to his head, and at the top of his head there was left some hair to style into a mohawk. Then, as Creed began to lose his hair altogether, he was already used to the sides being gone, so all that was left to take off was the top of his hair.
“I’d really like to thank the community. We’ve had a tremendous support system. People we don’t even know have sent donations and bought prayer bracelets. And there’s no way we can know all the people who have done this, so we want to thank all the people that have been supporting us and loving us,” Dunn said.
Jean Dunn invites other families that need support to contact her via e-mail at campfirecowgirl@hotmail.com
