“I still remember the day Sam had his surgery and they came out and told us it was cancer,” says Amanda Schrock. “It was October 19. You file that date in the back of your head along with the feeling that the world had just stopped. All I wanted to do was wake up from that bad dream.”
That was more than five years ago.
Today, eight-year-old Sam Schrock is charming his way through second grade. 
“The teachers, the kids – even the older kids – they all know who Sam is,” says Amanda. “We’ll walk down the hall and classmates will sing, ‘Sam, Sam, he’s our man.’
It’s no surprise they’d want to celebrate Sam.
“He is definitely our little miracle boy.”
Two months shy of his third birthday, his parents noticed he was tilting his head to the right and squinting his right eye. Initially, doctors believed it was an inner ear infection.
“Then one night I was washing his hair and wringing the water onto his head when he started complaining that his head hurt,” recalls Amanda. “I thought ‘Something’s not right here. We have a problem and it’s more than an ear infection.”
Amanda was right. The next day the pediatrician in their hometown of Nixa, Missouri, ordered a CAT scan, which revealed a tumor at the base of Sam’s brain.
That night, the Schrocks went home and packed their bags for St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Their two older children stayed behind with family. Their youngest child came with them to St. Louis. She was only six weeks old.
“I wasn’t prepared for what I was going to experience,” recalls Amanda.
Surgeons removed most of the tumor, which was two centimeters larger than a golf ball. But due to its proximity to the brain stem, they weren’t able to get it all.
The operation was on the right side of Sam’s brain stem, which impacted mobility and coordination on the right side of his body.
“He couldn’t sit up anymore, he couldn’t walk. It was like having twins with my six-week-old daughter,” says Amanda.
In the weeks that followed, the Schrocks began the process of helping Sam learn to walk again.
“He loved riding his bicycle,” says Amanda. “The first thing he wanted to do when we got home was hop on his bike. He still had bandages on his head, but I helped him on. He was so frustrated because he couldn’t push with his right leg or hold on with his right hand.”
But Sam didn’t give up.
“The doctors told us it would probably be six months before he could walk again.” So the family got to work.
They helped him sit, then coached him onto his knees, then helped him walk on his knees, promising Star Wars light saber fights as a reward.
Then, something amazing happened.
Just three weeks after his surgery, on his grandma’s birthday, Sam yelled, ‘Grandma, watch!’
Then he took a step forward…. and didn’t stop! When he’d fall, he’d get right on up and keep walking.
The ability to pick himself up and keep moving forward would prove critical in the weeks ahead, because doctors found two more tumors near Sam’s pituitary gland – in a place too dangerous to operate.
They opted for an aggressive combination of radiation and chemotherapy, and they needed to move quickly because the tumors were growing fast.
“We gave his treatment a lot of special consideration,” explains pediatric oncologist Dr. Allison King. “Generally we wouldn’t treat a child with radiation until he’s at least three years old and Sam was only 34 months. But we opted for the more aggressive course. It turns out that was the best thing we could have done.”
The Schrocks rented a small apartment in St. Louis during Sam’s six weeks of radiation. His parents traveled back and forth from Nixa, bringing Sam’s older brothers on weekends, doing everything they could to keep the family unit strong.
“Our goal was not to let this interfere or affect the kids’ daily routines. We wanted to keep life as normal as possible for our other children.”
Sam braved his radiation, and then 48 weeks of chemotherapy like a champion.
“He never got sick,” says Amanda. “In fact, I remember holding his IV pole while he walked through the hospital, yelling at him to slow down because we couldn’t keep up with him. He actually had more energy while he was on chemo!”
The next major challenge would be overcoming some of the physical and cognitive problems left behind by the surgery and follow up treatment.
Sam is seen regularly in the neuro-oncology clinic at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The clinic is a unique collaboration between multiple medical specialties. A child is seen by a neurosurgeon, oncologist, radiation oncologist, endocrinologist, social worker, physical therapist, or neuropsychologist so every issue related to the child’s treatment is addressed, not just the tumor.
“It’s not just one physician running the show,” explains Dr. King. “It’s multiple physicians and nurse practitioners. Everybody has input. And really, I need the support of the team as much as the families do. When everybody pulls together, it’s more rewarding for the child.”
Because of the location of his tumor, and the focus of his radiation, Sam had to work very hard to build back strength in the right side of his body. He also suffered high frequency hearing loss, a common side effect from certain forms of chemotherapy, growth hormone deficiency due to the proximity of the tumor to his pituitary gland, and slight cognitive delays.
Sam receives physical and occupational therapy. His family has to remind him to use his right hand when holding a pencil. Otherwise, they say, he’d just let the arm hang.
He gets growth hormone shots six days a week. And according to his mom, they’re working. “He went through a pair of tennis shoes each month at first!”
Since preschool, he’s been attending a special class in school where he gets one-on-one attention to help him keep up with his schoolwork.
“Most of the kids in Sam’s situation need a little extra help in school,” says Dr. King. “Because Sam and his family were willing to do the extra work, and see the teacher and do the exercises, he’s recovered beautifully.”
Today, Sam swims, dives, plays soccer, baseball, basketball and football. His height has caught up with his friends. There’s no more lag on his right side and he keeps up with his teammates on the playing field just fine.
“To look at him, you’d never know anything happened to him,” says Amanda. “He’s such a fighter!”
And Sam’s family fought right along with him.
“You need to educate yourself. We asked the doctors to run statistics and make sure we were getting the best possible treatment options. The doctors were very willing to work with us and answer all our questions. It was wonderful.”
Sam comes back to St. Louis Children’s Hospital for checkups every six months. But all things considered, things in the Schrock family are pretty normal.
“We have a lot of faith. We have great doctors. They know what they’re doing. And putting those two things together has been a huge success for us. We talk with other parents that are going through the same thing we went through. It’s been an inspiration to them especially when they look at Sam and can’t tell anything ever happened to him.”
The Schrocks have been busy since Sam’s treatment. In 2002, Amanda gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl. Their birthday: October 19.
“The morning I went in to deliver the twins, I’d lost track of time. I asked my husband what the date was and he said ‘October 19.’
‘Wow,’ I thought. It just gave new meaning to that horrible date from three years earlier, the day of Sam’s surgery when we learned about his cancer, when we could very well have lost him. It was just very touching. Now, October 19 is a blast for us. We have a party celebrating the twins’ birthdays, celebrating how well Sam’s doing. It’s just changed everything.”