Arseniy fights since diapers

This is Arseniy. In March he’ll turn 2, and for a year he has been receiving treatment for cancer. Arseniy has very cute, plump cheeks thanks to Dexamethasone. The boy’s favorite toy, Winnie-the-Pooh, also has plump cheeks. Together with Winnie, Arseniy is fighting very early (CNS) isolated relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The ‘picky’ doctor is treating Arseniy and the boy is treating Winnie. But Winnie does not need treatment, and the local doctor won’t help Arseniy either. The only thing that will save the boy is transplantation of bone marrow from unrelated donor, but no clinic in Ukraine can do it.

The surgery can be done in Italy, and the bill comes up to 120 thousand euros. 35 thousand euros still needs to be raised.

‘Hi, Arseniy! Let’s become friends!’

‘Hm-m-m-m’, the boy mumbles, displeased, and turns away.

I took off the mask for a second. The mask is removed from Arseniy’s face, too.

‘Hello, my boy! Let’s become friends!’

‘Hyhyhy’, Arseniy smiles.

Indeed, how can one meet a woman wearing a mask? It’s totally unacceptable. But if one can see the woman’s face, then one can trust her Winnie-the-Pooh for a minute and draw something on her notepad. But if she wears a mask, how can one see who is she, a new acquaintance? No way to find out.

He is small, that Arseniy. For now, he can say only the most important words: ‘mommy’, ‘daddy’ and ‘give me’. But the word ‘hurts’ he can’t say. Arseniy can show this word: he clenches his little fists, mumbles, backs away, his nose turns red and eyes are full of tears. When it hurts it hurts, so why learn the word? It’s better without it.

When doctor enters the ward it ‘hurts’, the paracentesis room ‘hurts very much’ (in that case, it’s ok to beat daddy with little fists). But the animals, and most importantly, Winnie-the-Pooh feel no pain. Arseniy puts on large eyeglasses, takes a toy stethoscope and thermometer and begins to heal his friends. He busily walks around the department in his funny yellow Crocs shoes and blue pants.

‘There comes Doctor Senia, our future oncologist!’, doctors and nurses laugh.

He’s not Senia. He is Arseniy. And he cures his friends the way they feel no pain at all: listens to breast sounds, checks the temperature, pats them. For some reason, the oncologists Arseniy knows do it absolutely differently. After their treatment the mouth turns into one big sore wound and he can neither drink nor eat. But he wants a cutlet with mashed potatoes.

Arseniy was born to a young family of KVN (a humorous game show) players, as funny and hilarious as his parents. However, after he was born he got into intensive care with pneumonia, but eventually made his way out. And after turning 9 months a funny Arseniy became sad and showed his mom a suspicious bruise on an arm. What followed were examinations, diagnosis, hospitals and a relapse one week before final discharge. The hospital is now his home.

‘To be honest, in the beginning I had no idea what leukemia is. I didn’t even want to ask for a leave, thinking that in some two weeks it will be over. But later, after I was told that it’s cancer, I went out to the hall, read everything about this disease on the Internet, and cried – for the first time in my life. I sat here and cried. And then, I came back to my son and began fighting for him. I don’t give up for a minute’, the boy’s father, Serhii Bakun says.

While we are talking, Arseniy constantly runs to elevators in the hall and asks to press the button. He likes it. He also waits for his beloved grandma to visit him and play with him. Arseniy’s grandmother is an attractive blonde. That’s why Arseniy likes all blonde nurses in the department. He smiles to them, rubs their hands and sends them air kisses. He even wanted to kiss one nurse on the cheek. ‘My and my son’s tastes are different’, Serhii sighs, hugging his brunette wife.

In the meantime, Arseniy sends an air kiss to me, a brunette. ‘What do you know about it, dad’, I wink to Arseniy.

Before the relapse Arseniy’s parents were fighting on their own, saying nothing to anyone and picking up all tabs themselves. But after relapse, when it became clear that only transplantation will save the boy at the cost of 120 thousand euros, Serhii, a lawyer, quit the job and concentrated on raising the funds, visiting offices of MPs and private companies and calling TV studios. In just two months he did the incredible and raised almost 85 thousand euros, but part of that sum has already been paid to the Italian clinic for blood typing and search of donor for his son.

As the New Year’s season approached the fund-raising has significantly slowed down. In the meantime, Arseniy is receiving his fifth chemotherapy after relapse to be able to live to see bone marrow being transplanted to him. Cancer is enemy. But even greater enemy is time which the boy has precious little. The boy’s body has limits, and once these limits are exceeded, high doses of chemotherapy no longer support but kill the body together with malignant cells. We have to fight the time.

Name: Arseniy S. Bakun, born 02/03/2013

Location: Kyiv region

Diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, CNS relapse first very early