Living to fight another day Patient's parents eager for return to normalcy 2 years after 7-year-old is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, family sees the light at the end of the tunnel. by EILEEN MOZINSKI TH Photo by Jeremy Portje CAPTION: Jamie Straka, 7, of Peosta, Iowa, owes his life to his 5-year-old brother, Jesse, who donated bone marrow to his older brother two years ago. Jamie has been battling a rare disease called aplastic anemia. Monday, April 16, 2007 PEOSTA, Iowa - Teri Straka has a feeling that her family is on the brink of a happy ending. "We're just kind of crossing our fingers," said Teri, whose son Jamie has been fighting aplastic anemia for two years. Jamie has been off medication for several months and has only a few weeks to go before he's "out of the woods," according to Teri, who said doctors don't like to use the word "cure." "We're just really happy," she said. "We know other families that aren't so lucky right now." Jamie fell ill on Valentine's Day in 2005 as a 5-year-old. That May, he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare disease in which the bone marrow stops producing blood cells. The illness creates susceptibility to infections, excessive bleeding and can be fatal. Since Jamie's diagnosis, the Straka family has helped him fight the illness. His brother, Jesse, now 5, gave Jamie a bone marrow transplant that saved his life. The family's youngest son Drew, now is 2 years old. The time parents Tom and Teri spent traveling with Jamie to Milwaukee to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the Ronald McDonald House were hard on Jesse. Teri said Jesse is glad to have his brother home and has a good sense of what transpired. Not that the ordeal has quelled his natural brotherly rivalry. "He'll say to me, 'OK, I gave him blood so what is he going to give me?" Teri said. Jamie, now a first-grader at Seton Elementary School, is like many 7-year-olds, enjoying swimming, basketball, baseball, Star Wars movies and bantering with his brothers. "He's really come around and is growing up enjoying school," said Teri. "I don't think he'll quite remember it." She is hopeful that the trying times during the illness won't leave too strong of an impression on Jamie. The family still is making monthly trips to Milwaukee for blood draws and checkups. Assuming Jamie makes it through his weeks off of medication without his blood count dropping, they'll continue to go once a year until he turns 18. Being close enough to make the trips to Milwaukee and keep living at home has been a relief for Tom and Teri, who are both from Dubuque and have found the community network of support invaluable. Tom is president of the Peosta and Centralia Firefighters. The group has rallied around the family countless times, even shaving their heads to match Jamie who had lost his hair from medical treatments. "We were all hoping for the best. You always have the worse in the back of your mind, too," said Fire Chief Jack Koetz, who said as emergency responders the group automatically thinks about how to handle things in the event of a downturn. The group provided support for Tom when he was rattled and transported Jamie by ambulance on occasion. One morning when Jamie woke up with a fever and a medical team was flown in to pick him up, department members took the Strakas by ambulance to the airport. Teri flew back to Milwaukee with Jamie, and Tom stayed behind. "I know that when the jet took off he wasn't the only one with a tear in his eye," said Koetz, who said the experience was a profound one for many of the department members. "We do this every day for other people, but doing it for one of our own really made it kind of hit home," he said. That feeling of interconnectedness has also been served by a Web site operated by Jamie's uncle, Brad Straka. "I was able to post updates several times a day during Jamie's transplant operation and as needed during his recovery. Now I send an e-mail blast to Jamie's support network when the site changes, which is much less often, such 'no news is good news," Brad wrote in an e-mail. The site kept family and friends updated throughout the process so Teri and Tom didn't have to make multiple calls. Now it provides information on the illness and links to other families dealing with it. And the family hopes the various pictures of the lively Straka boys can provide inspiration as well. "They're one big happy family now and they're going to stay that way," Koetz said. Copyright 2007 Telegraph Herald. All rights reserved.

Department of cut-ups supports cancer victim Aug 17, 2005     Peosta firefighters get a short haircut to lift spirits of a co-worker's son, who has had chemotherapy by EILEEN MOZINSKI PEOSTA, Iowa - Short hair isn't just a fashion statement for a group of Peosta firefighters; it's a show of support. About 15 of the department's firefighters clipped their hair short this summer so 5-year-old Jamie Straka, a local boy who lost his hair during chemotherapy treatments, wouldn't feel alone. "One of our assistant chiefs brought a clipper home, we did it right at the station," said Peosta and Centralia Fire Chief Jack Koetz. This summer, Jamie was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease in which his bone marrow will not make blood cells, and it makes him more sensitive to infections, fatigue and excessive bleeding. The disease often is fatal if left untreated, according to the National Library of Medicine. Jamie received a bone marrow transplant from his 3-year-old brother, Jesse, in June and was recovering at the Ronald McDonald House in Milwaukee until a few weeks ago. While the Strakas were camped out in Milwaukee, his father Tom's co-workers at the Fire Department decided to cut their hair so Jamie would feel more comfortable when he arrived home. "(Tom) got his hair cut when his son had to get the chemo, and the rest of the firemen did it as a gesture of support to Tom and the Straka family," Koetz said. "It certainly lifted his spirits," said Tom of the post-haircut photo that the firemen posted on the family's Web site. "He got a real kick out of it." The Strakas still are commuting to Milwaukee twice a week so doctors can monitor Jamie's blood count, and they will continue making the three-hour drive at least once a week for the next year. Jamie is still on several medications, including an IV pack that he has to wear continuously. "They've done well," said Tom of the brothers' post-transfusion recoveries. "There are cells from both of them present (in Jamie) and working right now. The question is going to be once they get him off of the medication." Jamie has settled in back at home and his parents are hoping that he will be able to join his kindergarten class this winter. As for the firefighters, having short hair turned out to be well worth the effort. "With the hot weather that came along, it was pretty enjoyable actually," Koetz said. Copyright 2005 Telegraph Herald

Little brother shares bone marrow A Peosta, Iowa, family awaits word on the transplant's success by KATE GROSS Jamie Straka loves superheroes, and on June 7 the 5-year-old received a gift from one little hero that could change his life forever ... by saving it. Jamie's 3-year-old brother, Jesse, underwent surgery to give Jamie some of his bone marrow last week at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Jamie has a condition called aplastic anemia, in which his bone marrow refuses to make blood cells, making him more susceptible to infections, fatigue and excessive bleeding. "We just explained to Jamie that his blood doesn't work right now and that Jesse was going to help him out by giving him some of his," said his mother, Teri, of Peosta, Iowa. The Strakas first discovered their son's condition on Valentine's Day when Teri and her husband, Tom, took Jamie to Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque with a fever. After three months of weekly blood and platelet transfusions in Iowa City, for what doctors believed to be a virus, Jamie was finally diagnosed with the disease in May. The family traveled to Milwaukee on May 17 to have bone marrow tests in hopes of finding a transplant match for Jamie. Both Jesse and Jamie's other little brother, 5-month-old Drew, proved to be perfect matches. "It's only a one-in-four chance that your sibling will be a match," Teri said. "So we were really lucky." The Strakas decided that Jesse would be the one to give the marrow, since Drew's tiny hips would make the procedure difficult. "Jesse did really well," she said. "The only bad thing was that he wanted to see Jamie afterward but he couldn't because he has a cold. So they had to look through the glass door at each other." Jamie has been doing well since the procedure. The Strakas are staying in the Ronald McDonald House, as Jamie must remain hospitalized for 40 days after the transplant. The family won't know if Jamie's body has accepted his brother's bone marrow until 18 days after surgery. When he is released from the hospital, Jamie will be able to join his family at the Ronald McDonald House for about 60 days or until he is well enough to return home to Peosta, and he will then make weekly trips to Milwaukee for the next year. "He hasn't complained about not going home," Teri said. "He just knows when he gets better then he can wrestle with his buddies again." Meanwhile, Deven Strief, a 2-year-old from Eldridge, Iowa, also has aplastic anemia. With the help of immuno-suppressive therapy drug treatments, Deven's condition is improving. "He's doing really good," said Deven's mother, Mollie Strief. "His bone marrow is actually producing cells." Deven will continue with the drug treatments for at least 12 months as long as his condition improves. "You wouldn't even know that he's sick," Mollie said. "He's hyper and wild as ever." Copyright 2005 Telegraph Herald