A battle against cancer

Troix Silvers is joined by his parents, Sarina and Terry, and one of his two younger brothers, Taite.

It was about 4 in the afternoon when Troix Silvers emerged from his bedroom located on the first floor of his family's home. A tall, lanky young man that easily towers over both of his parents, the short trip to the family room would've normally been nothing significant for the 17 year old.

But that was more than six months ago.

Today, those few steps across the house are a persistent struggle. Needing a walker to keep from falling, Troix relies heavily on his left leg to keep steady while avoiding the urge to put any weight on the other. While it didn't show on his face, it seemed the pain was still there despite months of medical care to save his life.

Growing up, Troix (pronounced Troy) was a rambunctious teenager with a particular fondness for camping and hiking. A fan of most types of music, his parents described the times when their son would jump around his bedroom as he listened to his tunes.

He was also a tough child that was reluctant to tell his parents if he wasn't feeling fell.

"When there's something wrong with him, he doesn't like to tell us. If we don't ask the right questions, he won't tell us," Terry said.

But that started to change in early June when Troix took summer classes at Mountain Home High School. It originally started off as a little bit of pain in his right hip that never seemed to go away.

The trouble worsened one evening when the teen was roughhousing with his two younger brothers, Trent and Taite. During the brotherly scuffles, Troix was kicked in the right side of his pelvis. Normally a minor irritant at best, this time the temporary sting didn't subside. Instead, it worsened.

"I thought it was just something that would just blow over," Troix said.

That's when his parents noticed their son was now struggling to walk.

"He woke up one morning, and his leg hurt," Terry said. "He was walking a little funny. He was swinging his hip when he walked. He couldn't walk normal."

Within a week, Troix's ability to walk had quickly worsened. Attempts to straighten his leg out were met with excruciating pain. With physical therapy providing no relief, doctors started to suspect that his hip had popped out of the socket.

Meanwhile, an MRI of Troix's spine looked for a pinched nerve or anything out of the ordinary. The scan stopped just a few inches short of the actual problem -- a malignant tumor growing in the bones of the teen's hip.

"The (doctors) kept telling us they didn't know what it was," Terry said. "They thought because he had tight hamstrings that he needed to stretch out his hamstrings. So they put him on a regimen to do some physical therapy and some stretches."

A few days later, the warning signs became visibly evident. His parents discovered a fist-sized lump on their son's hip and noticed that his right leg was also starting to swell.

Knowing something was definitely wrong with their son, the family returned to the hospital in mid-July. What immediately alarmed doctors was Troix's blood pressure had skyrocketed to dangerous levels. He and his mother were immediately taken by ambulance to Boise for more advanced care with Terry and their other boys following shortly afterward.

Within a few hours, doctors had discovered the tumor. What caught the family off guard was more bad news -- it was not only growing but it was possibly cancerous.

The news hit Sarina the hardest.

"She really couldn't stop crying," Terry said. "It was a lot of disbelief. It was something that doesn't happen to your family or your kids."

Follow-up tests confirmed that the tumor was cancerous but doctors were not sure what type. On July 22, the family finally had some answers and a name for the cancer that was threatening their son's life.

It's called Ewing Sarcoma -- an aggressive form of bone cancer that can spread fairly quickly. It's also relatively uncommon and accounts for just 1 percent of childhood cancer cases with only 200 reported cases per year in the United States.

While fairly rare, this form of cancer has a fairly high cure rate of up to 70 percent in many patients. But Troix wasn't so lucky. The cancer had already spread into his lungs, dropping his chances of survival to roughly 40 percent.

However, additional tests showed that the disease hadn't spread further, which provided little relief for Sarina.

"He never got sick much. He hardly ever caught a cold and never really had the flu," she said.

"That was a pretty rough two weeks," Terry added as he held his wife's hand while she wiped away her tears.

The battle against the disease began right away. With the cancer entrenched in Troix's bones, surgery was out of the question. The only option was chemotherapy.

But the cancer-fighting medicine came with its own consequences. By his second treatment, Troix became extremely sick and continued to vomit for nearly four straight days. He dropped 22 pounds within a matter of weeks.

What really bothered Troix was the idea that he was losing his light brown hair, which he admitted that he liked to keep long.

"I would stay up at the hospital with him, and there would be times where he would be laying down and there's nothing but hair on his pillow," Terry added.

As his father's urging, the teen agreed to shave off what little of his hair remained.

Troix has tried to take things one day at a time.

"I honestly was kind of scared at first, but then I learned to live with it," he said. "I just went around with my daily life and that's it. The only difference is that I have a walker so I can regain my walking ability."

During the course of Troix's treatment, the family had to make some tough choices. Terry quit his job to provide around-the-clock care for his son while Sarina continued to work for a local counseling and job service company.

They have absolutely no regrets.

"He's my boy, so I will do what I need to do," Terry said.

Looking back, Terry and Sarina admit the disease has actually helped bring the family closer together.

Whenever his brother is away for treatment, Trent is always asking his parents when they expect Troix will return home. There are plenty of hugs for his big brother each time he comes home. Before Troix got sick, the two of them would normally bicker all the time, their dad said.

Meanwhile, Taite has struggled to come to terms with his brother's illness. His grades in school dropped considerably since the year began and he tends to act up a lot more often, his mother said. However, he remains optimistic over his brother's chances to make a full recovery.

"He's going to make it. Troix's going to make it, so I'm not worried," he repeatedly reminds his parents.

Troix has one more round of chemotherapy before he begins radiation treatment for another three to four weeks before he starts chemotherapy again. So far, the prognosis looks promising, Terry said. The tumor on his pelvis has shrunk to about 10 percent of its original size, and the tumors in his lungs have nearly cleared up.

"It hasn't spread any more, so it's looking really good," Terry added.

However, this form of cancer can easily return during remission, so the family understands they will need to keep an eye on their son for years to come.

"We're just thinking about now and dealing with it one day at a time," Terry said.

Flashing his broad, inviting smile, Troix admits his ordeal has given him a new perspective on life. Today, he's satisfied enjoying what he has versus what he wants.

"I'm just a teen, and that's the way it is," he said.

But out of all the things he currently can't enjoy, there's one thing he wishes he could have back.

"I miss my hair," he said.