Max Mikulak's (too short) Life

Max Mikulak died August 31, 2008 at age 7 from neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer. He had battled this beast for almost four of his short seven years here on earth and yet never lost his boyish love of Tony Hawk, Star Wars, WWII fighter planes, Legos… Hi. I’m Melissa Mikulak, mom to Max. I’d like to tell you what Max’s Ring of Fire is all about. Max was 3 ½ years old when he was diagnosed with stage 4, high-risk neuroblastoma – a very aggressive cancer of the sympathetic nervous system that quickly spreads to other organs including the bones. I remember him lying in the hospital bed shortly after we knew his diagnosis. His little body was frail, anemic, and he was in such pain that he was on a constant morphine drip. He couldn’t move and it hurt to be touched – which was awful for all of us because he’s a snuggler. He looked at me and said in a tiny voice, “Mommy, the doctors are never going to make me better.” He had a shock of blonde hair, long eyelashes framing his blue eyes, and already had a great sense of humor. His hair and eyelashes soon fell out following his first chemotherapy treatment, but his good spirit remained. He would tell the nurses, “leave me alone” when they came into his hospital room because he knew they were going to have to do something to him. It wasn’t long before he found that he could be in control - of the television and of how he was touched – and soon the nurses could do whatever they needed to do as long as they didn’t block his view and followed his particular instructions for certain procedures – which the nurses did with smiles on their faces. Max underwent the standard treatment protocol for his diagnosis which included 6 high-dose chemo treatments, radiation, and a stem cell transplant – all in six months. His treatment went off without a hitch and he was NED – no evidence of disease – shortly after he turned 4. One year later, right after his 5th birthday, a spot appeared on his follow-up scans. We soon found o...