While most children his age were reading books like “Holes” and “The Little Prince 9-year-old Caleb Dominguez was sitting in a hospital bed reading a children’s book about childhood leukemia, trying to make sense of what it meant to have cancer.
Dominguez, now a Pepperdine senior and three-time cancer survivor, has been fighting cancer since he was a child.
As Pepperdine’s second-annual 24-hour-long Relay for Life event approaches April 16, its purpose is to remember those who have been affected by cancer as well as those who continue to fight the disease by supporting the American Cancer Society. Relay for Life serves as a reminder of the many lives that have been deeply affected by cancer in the Pepperdine community.
Dominguez was diagnosed with childhood leukemia when he was 9 years old. At such a young age, he did not fully understand that he would be battling a life-threatening disease.Since he did not tell his classmates what was going on, he said he felt a sense of normalcy.
You don’t want people staring at you he said. I couldn’t understand what I was going through; I didn’t expect [the kids at school] to understand.”
Looking back at his childhood before cancer Dominguez jokingly described that time as his “prime.” Strong and fast on and off the playground Dominguez hoped to maintain his athletic abilities despite treatments. He remembers rushing from chemotherapy to flag football games.
But the chemotherapy made him increasingly weak nauseous and exhausted. Dominguez quickly learned that he would not be able to keep up with the other boys his age.
“I would ask ‘Did someone just fast forward the clock on my body 50 years?'” Dominguez said.
After the chemotherapy was through he went into a symptom-free remission for almost three years. Relieved Dominguez returned to life as a normal.
“Little did I know that this was just a single battle that had been won and I was going to be in this war for the long haul he said.
In the summer months before his freshman year of high school, Dominguez trained for the football team.
I could not keep up with the rest of the group he said. I was running so slowly. I seriously felt like I was dragging weights on my ankles.”
Dominguez said that at times he would fake injuries so that the coaches would not yell at him for his lagging pace.
What was to blame?
The results of a spinal tap explained it all; his enemy had returned. The leukemia was back in his bone marrow and nervous system causing the motor control problems that he had in his legs.
“I could not believe it Dominguez said. I thought my life was over.”
It was back to chemo— back to the pain for months on end.
Although many in Dominguez’s same position do not survive because they are unable to find similar enough bone marrow fortunately his brother provided a perfect match.
In spite of his hardship he starting feeling drawn toward the medical field. He said he believed his experiences would be able to help him relate to his own patients one day.
“No university or medical school could ever teach me what I learned from being a patient for so long Dominguez said.
For the second time, Dominguez made a full recovery. He went straight back to playing sports and was feeling good, even though he had to struggle to catch up in school, taking summer sessions just to graduate on time. By his sophomore year at Pepperdine, cancer was far from Dominguez’s mind.
I couldn’t even contemplate it ever coming back a third time he said.
On Project Serve in Philadelphia during March 2006 Dominguez began to feel more tired than normal and experienced extreme loss of appetite.
When Dominguez arrived home the following weekend, his mother took him to an oncologist immediately. To Dominguez’s dismay, he found himself once again in a hospital bed.
According to his doctor, getting childhood leukemia for a third time, especially once into young adulthood, was unheard of. This time, he had three lesions on his brain.
Dominguez could not believe it. It’s true what they say about your life flashing before your eyes he said.
Although Dominguez doubted he had the strength to make it through again, he decided to keep fighting, and eventually beat the cancer.
Freshman Amy Drummond, another cancer survivor at Pepperdine, has dealt with the effects of retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer, for much of her life.
When Drummond was an infant, her mother became concerned about a strange white light that reflected off of her right eye in photos. The light ended up being a tumor in her eye.
At nine months old she received chemotherapy and laser surgery for her retinoblastoma. In order to ensure that the cancer would not spread to her optic nerve, surgeons replaced her eye with a prosthetic.
The glass prosthetic was specially designed and painted to match her other eye. There is no distinguishable difference in their appearances, and Drummond is able to maintain some control over it, although it does not move at exactly the same speed as her other eye.
At first I didn’t think anything of it Drummond said. And then of course as you get older you get more self-conscious.”
Drummond’s experience with cancer helped her realize the importance of finding a cure. Both Drummond and Dominguez are members of the Pepperdine Colleges Against Cancer Club and the Survivorship Committee for Relay for Life.
“I’ve always felt that even though it happened to me when I was so young I can still use it for something good Drummond said. I’ve become passionate about fighting cancer.”
Finally enjoying his senior year Dominguez sees Relay for Life as an opportunity to share his story so that he might help others.
As a sports medicine major he said hopes to enter into some kind of combination of the medical field and ministry after graduation and is considering various medical mission programs abroad.
Dominguez attributes his strength and persistence to his strong Christian faith and does not think it is coincidental that he and his older brother were named after Caleb and Joshua from the Old Testament–– the only two Israelites who survived the 40 years in the desert to make it to the Promised Land.
“I think that my story is similar to Caleb’s Dominguez said. We both had to overcome great challenges but in the end we made it through.”