Teen with terminal cancer faces the odds with his family
Andrew Felix wipes crumbs from the dining room table and politely pulls out a chair for his guests.
The actions seem so normal for a boy who is dying.
The 17-year-old North Las Vegas resident is battling Synovial Sarcoma, a rare cancer that usually affects the arms and legs.
Andrew walks slowly and hunched to one side. His wispy arm clutches at the spot that hurts the most -- right under his rib cage. He finally reaches the other side of the table before plopping down, exhausted.
He has days to live, doctors say, but he feels differently. His frame is thin and frail. But his spirit, for the most part, is still intact. That's something the cancer can't eat away.
The teenager chats excitedly about going to prom with his girlfriend, playing the drums and skateboarding with friends -- although that doesn't happen any more because physical movement is too painful for his lungs.
Discussing these moments allows him the opportunity to be a kid and not have his thoughts clouded by adult issues.
As he talks, his hand rests in the mess of black curls on his head, seemingly propping it up. He blinks slowly. A slight layer of perspiration has formed on his forehead and around his mustached mouth. This conversation is taking a lot of energy.
Andrew doesn't mind. He talks about the tumors that have wrapped themselves around his heart, invaded his lungs and ribs and continue to spread throughout his body.
"Things haven't been going that well lately," Andrew said, while grabbing his chest. "It's hard to breathe. There's nodules in both of my lungs. I can't run; I can't do nothing like that. I can't ride a board because if I land hard, it hurts so bad."
He recently discovered a tumor on his liver. He can feel the bulge through the skin.
The chemotherapy treatments didn't help. At times, they were so painful he said he would rather die.
"That stuff makes you want to kill yourself," Andrew said. "It makes you think death is better. It feels like acid going through your veins. Then, your hair falls out. Then, you run out of energy and you can't eat anything. There are times where I've gone four days without eating when I was on that."
He couldn't drink water during those times because he would throw it up, and "when you pee, it burns."
In December 2009, Andrew had flu-like symptoms. Doctors at North Vista Hospital diagnosed him with bronchitis and dehydration. He took medicine, but the symptoms came back. Andrew was then told he had pneumonia. He collapsed. He was taken to Sunrise Hospital, where doctors there ran several tests.
Andrew had two masses of cancer. One was wrapped around his heart. It was so large, no surgery would help.
Radiation helped somewhat, but his body could take only so much. He's undergoing pill chemotherapy treatments, which haven't been widely tested.
It's a last resort.
His mother, Letty, recently lost her job at a pawn shop -- the same day she went on maternity leave. There's no health insurance, which means not only can she not pay for her son's treatment and diapers for the new baby, she can't even afford her diabetes medication.
And the bills keep piling up.
She's a strong woman, but the stresses are overwhelming, she admits. She cries a lot more now.
"I'll try to pinch the pennies, but he'll ask me for a Starbucks, and I know he doesn't eat for three or four days at a time," she said. "That worries me. It's something so small like a soda, and I can't get it for him. It's scary not to know what's next."
He was always a healthy kid. Sure, there was a broken finger here or there. But he never gave her problems with police, and he wasn't using drugs like some of the other kids.
"I would have been, 'God, just take me,' e specially with the chemo and what I saw him go through," she said, "Sometimes he asks, 'Mom, why me?' I tell him God chose him because he's very strong. I couldn't handle it.
"He's the baby after the baby. He was my baby for 15 years. I mean, what can I say? He's everything to me. He has a great sense of humor. I love that about him."
Andrew worries about his mother and his sisters: Valerie, 20; Kailey, 4; and baby Jazmine. He wants to see them grow up.
"I pray that I get to stay here and watch my little sisters grow older," Andrew said. "I want to be with everyone. I don't want to just pass away, and everybody just goes on without me. I want to grow old with everybody."
It has given him a new perspective on life.
"When I see people who mess around with their lives, walking around, taking drugs, it gives me a headache," Andrew said. "I'm over here having to take drugs just to live, you know?"
He doesn't sleep well. He always thinks about "what the doctor said, what the doctor said, what the doctor said." Doctors know only so much, but Andrew added that he doesn't take waking up to another day for granted anymore.
"There's only a certain point of how worse it can get, which I'm kind of scared of," Andrew said. "But, I mean, if it's inevitable, and there's nothing I can do to stop it, that means that's how God wants it."
Contact Downtown and North Las Vegas View reporter Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@viewnews.com or 383-0492.
