Jamison Bennett Watters - Online Memorial Website

Jamison was born on Thursday September 13th, 2007 at 11:50 am. He came into this world and screamed for the first four hours of his life. I remember being so scared that was an indication of what was to come, but he turned out to be a super laid back child. He was so full of life and loved playing and annoying his big brother Ty more than anything. Shortly after his second birthday, I started to get really worried about him because he hadn't been acting right. He was so much fussier than normal, wanted to sleep all the time, and he wasn't eating (which was very very unusual for this child). My sister and I were bathing him and my nephew one night and noticed small bruises all over his back. At first I didn't think much of it, but over the next few days I started to research and found that those were all signs of Leukemia. I was in my last semester of nursing, so I pulled out all my books and started researching this.  I started noticing other signs he had such as night sweats and an enlarged spleen. I completely had myself freaked out so my husband told me I should just make a doctors appt for him. I just knew something was wrong, but I really thought I was being a crazy mom or hoping I was. When I took him to the doctor, he pretty much laughed in my face and told me I was a crazy nursing students, and I needed to quit reading the internet. He told me he was just a normal healthy two year old who was "going through a stage". He told me his enlarged spleen was "just a muscle". I left feeling a little better, but still very concerned. The next day my child wouldn't even walk. He acted like it hurt to much to even stand. I took him back to a minor care clinic and begged the doctor to just run blood work. The doctor was very nice and ordered the tests. It was Friday night at 7p so I had to wait until Monday to get the bloodwork done. Monday October 5th, 2009 was the day we found out. We recieved the call saying the bloodwork came back and there was a 99% chance my baby had Leukemia. We were immediately admitted into Children's Hospital. The next day we found out that Jamison had ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). I still remember so clearly our doctor sitting us down and saying "this is by no means a death sentence" We were told that this type of Leukemia had an 85% cure rate. We were so optimisitic, he was going to beat this, we never had a doubt. Jamison started his treatment on Wednesday and we were in the hospital for a total of 9 days before we finally got out. Even though he was very weak and didn't understand what was going on, he was such a trooper. No matter how bad he felt, anyone who walked through the door with a present, could get him to immediately smile and raise his hands towards the present that he knew was for him. He had just recently just gotten the whole getting gift thing from his birthday the prior month. I still remember him throwing the tissue paper out of the bags and yelling "ta da" with each new gift, even if it was clothes :). We went home for another week and Jamison continued his out patient treatment. He was very weak so he never really moved from the couch or bed. It was so hard to see my baby who is usually so full of life become so weak. He would just sit on the couch and watch tv with his big bubbas Ty Ty and shout out demands for food :). The steroids they had him on made him extremely hungry. He was really just starting to talk more clear and would just shout out demands like "Chicken" "Bacon" "Rice", he even woke up one night around 1am shouting for a roll.  On Wednesday Oct. 21, just two weeks after his treatment began, we were given great news. His leukemia cells were less than 2% and he was put into the rapid responding group. The doctor seemed even more optimistic. I remember walking out of the hospital with him that day and thinking this is one of the up days that he is going to have in a very long battle he will have over the next 3 1/2 years (that was his intended treatment time). I remember carrying him and hugging and kissing him over and over again because I was so happy. Knowing in my heart he was going to beat this. I took him to McDonalds (because as always he was starving from the steroids), and we spent one last night together as a family (Jamison, Ty Ty, Mommy & Daddy). The next day we woke up and Jamison wouldn't eat or drink anything. He had been throwing up occasionally for about a week (which the dr. said was normal), but he began to throw up even more. We took my 4 year old, Ty, to school then came back home. I changed his diaper and noticed there was blood in his stool. I called the clinic and was told a nurse would call me back. All he did that entire morning was sleep then throw up. A nurse finally called me back around noon, but I missed the call so the phone tag continued. By the time I actually got a nurse on the phone, it was 330p and was told to take him to the ER since the clinic would be closing soon. When we arrived at the hospital, I was told that he was dehydrated and needed to be admitted for fluids. Throughout the evening he continued to throw up gag and throw up constantly.  They ran xrays and a ct scan of his head to make sure he didn't have bleeding on the brain (which can happen when your platelets are low). They couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Finally around 330am he finally quit throwing up long enough and the two of us fell asleep in his bed, with daddy on the couch. Around 515, we were woken up by the nurse running in and flipping on the lights. I picked up Jamison who was limp in my arms, and started hearing the monitors going off. I just kept yelling for him to wake up, but I knew he was gone. They were able to bring him back within about 10 minutes and he was transferred to the PICU. Once he arrived there he coded again, and after 20 minutes the doctors said we should let him go. I was incomplete shock, this wasn't suppose to happen, he was suppose to make it. We spent the next 5 hours saying good-bye to him with the rest of our family. We were so confused and had so many questions. It wasn't until two weeks later that we recieved the autopsy report where we were given some answers. His immune system was so weak and his medications had eaten up his stomach lining which cause bacteria to get into his blood. He went septic into septic shock. The doctor pretty much told us that there was nothing that could have been done. It's been a little over 3 months now and we still can't believe he's gone. This wasn't suppose to happen, he was suppose to beat this horrible disease. Our whole life was changed in that one moment. Me, his daddy, and big brother feel like there has been a huge hole ripped out of our family. Our arms ache to hold him again. We miss him more than anything, but we know that he isn't missing anything except 3 years of pain, chemo, and spinal taps. He is loved and missed every moment of everyday, but we know one day we will be reunitied eternally. Til them we love you bunches baby boy.

Born in on September 13, 2007.

Passed away on October 23, 2009.