Ashton Wade Reedy 

Our precious Ashton was born on May 21, 1999. He was beautiful and he was perfect. He was his Gammy’s boy from the moment I held him for the first time when he was only a couple of hours old. 
He brought such happiness to our family. He was my daughter’s first child and our first grandchild. Ashton was such a good baby. He hardly ever cried and that smile…what a smile. He could melt your heart with that perfect smile. Ashton had ice blue eyes and blonde hair that he never wanted combed. I told his mom on several occasions that he was so special. I told her that she would never have another baby that was as good as Ashton. She would just say that I had him spoiled. 
On December 2, 2001 Ashton began to run a temperature. This was very unusual for him. He just never ran fever. We were in contact with the doctor but Tylenol just wasn’t working. Monday morning his mother took him to the doctor. He was diagnosed with strep. But the doctor said that he was just so pale that he wanted to do some blood work. At 2:30 that afternoon we were told that Ashton probably had leukemia and we were sent to Cook Children’s in Ft. Worth. 
The next day I held my precious while he had a bone marrow aspiration and a spinal tap. He was such a brave little boy. He held on tight to his Gammy and I whispered in his ear that everything would be ok and that his Gammy was there for him and that I loved him very much. We were told that Ashton had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). The doctors were all very positive and said that Ashton had a very good chance of recovery. 
When Ashton was admitted to the hospital his liver was very inflamed. It was functioning correctly but was very inflamed. He was diagnosed with hepatitis, mono, strep and ALL. 
Still the doctors were sure that he was going to be ok. Chemo was started on Wednesday December 5. Ashton tolerated it well. That was the only day that he actually got out of bed and walked while he was in the hospital. That day the Home Depot Man was coming and he was so excited. Home Depot was his favorite store. He loved to go there with his Pops (grandpa) and ride the lawnmowers. The rest of the week was pretty much just staying in bed and having chemo. We were told that one of the drugs would cause him to have a big appetite. We were beginning to see that. The things that he wanted to eat and the time of day or night that he wanted them was amazing. 
On Wednesday December 12 he went into surgery and had a port put in his chest to receive his chemo. He went through the surgery fine. He had slept most of the day, but that evening around 10:30 he began to get sick. The nurses thought that it was from the chemo and the anesthesia. By morning he was critical and was placed in ICU. His blood pressure was so low that they could not find one and his heart was racing at 220 beats per minute. The doctors told us at that point that they did not know if Ashton would make it or not. He was in septic shock, he had no white blood cells to fight off the infection and very low blood pressure. Ashton had to be placed on a ventilator within a couple of hours of being placed in ICU. We would never hear him speak again or see those big blue eyes sparkle. 
He was given so much fluid that he had gained about 20 pounds in 2 days. He was placed on a dialysis machine to remove the fluid. The doctors were able to start weaning him off of some of the medications once the fluid was removed. He was getting better and everyone thought he was going to make a full recovery. On Friday December 21 Ashton had a major bleed into his brain. There was a blood clot that could not be removed and he had suffered a stroke. No one knows why this happened to Ashton. They told us that children with leukemia have tendencies to have bleeds like that. 
On Sunday December 23 our precious died in our arms. He left behind a family that loves him more than anything. We all miss him so much. 
It is my hopes and prayers that no other child will have to suffer and a cure will be found. 
Juana McBride 
(Ashton’s Gammy) 
"Gammy “loves ya more everday"