Young San Carlos Boy Survives Lymphoma and Gets His Wish

It was summer in San Carlos, two years ago, and Nathan Galicia was about to turn 15-years-old. The young man was about to become a sophomore at Carlmont High School, where he took to his classes with fastidious study habits, practiced tenor saxophone, and found time to take Wushu fighting classes at the California Tai-Chi Institute.

Nathan was, by all accounts, a normal teenager, on his way through high school and onto college.

He thought he was too young for cancer, for a disease to swoop in and change his life. He thought the lumps in his neck, the swollen lymph nodes that aggravated him, were simple symptoms of a cold. He thought it would pass.

“I was just in shock when I first found out,” Nathan said. “I think I just teared up and didn’t say anything.”

It was Friday, June 12, 2009, his mother Regina Louie remembered, when Nathan was diagnosed. She remembers the date and the day the way we tend to when a day alters the entire course of our lives. And this was one of them.

Nathan had complained of a sore throat. His lymph nodes were swollen, but the signs were thought to be that of a common cold. When a few weeks went by and the cold had passed, the lymph nodes remained swollen.

“I called the nurse and we took him to see his doctor,” his mother explained. “The doctor ran some blood tests and told us to not be alarmed until the results came back.”

Nathan and his mother lunched at a nearby Elephant Bar and waited for four hours before the tests results were ready.  Nathan’s white blood cell count was low. The doctor prepared the family for the reality that Nathan could have cancer of the blood, and sent Nathan for further testing.

He went to UCSF Hospital for further testing. His mother said UCSF took five days to determine Nathan’s diagnosis. One doctor thought he had leukemia. It was also possible Nathan had mononucleosis. The following Monday, doctors ran an X-ray and saw a mass in his chest. Blood tests were inconclusive. Bone marrow tests were done. A biopsy of a lymph node.

Finally, they had their answer: Nathan had T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s, a type of blood cancer.

That following afternoon, he was admitted.

"I don’t think I even broke down," said Regina. "It was very shocking. I guess there’s no time. Everything went so fast. All I could think about was 'my son is going to go through this'."

For two years, Nathan was in and out of UCSF with numerous cycles of chemotherapy, medicinal treatment and check-ups. He never cried. He just put the pain out of his mind and went through the recovery process.

While in the hospital, Nathan kept up with his classes thanks to tutor Randy Bennett, who was provided by the Sequoia school district. Bennett made special trips to the hospital to work with Nathan on math and science, keeping him up to speed with his studies. In his spare time, Nathan took saxophone lessons in the hospital, keeping his mind occupied, and his spirit up.

“Nathan’s a strong boy,” his mother said. “He never wavered. He always had a smile on his face.”

Today Nathan is doing an 8-week internship at UCSF at the Center for Tobacco Control. His interactions with doctors and nurses have inspired him to study medicine. He finished his junior year with straight-As and has finished chemotherapy.

He heads into his senior year free of the disease that once threatened his life. And while doctors cannot say he is cured, his blood tests officially show zero traces of lymphoma.

Nathan’s struggle and perseverance caught the eye of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who granted Nathan his wish to continue to play music. The foundation bought Nathan a Selman saxophone, handmade in France, one of the best tenor saxophones made today.

“It was such an unbelievable experience, the whole thing,” Nathan said. “I think it matured me and allowed me to go through something not many people go through. I wouldn’t take it back. It’s made me who I am and who I’ll become.”