It’s very colorful inside the Chili’s Care Center. A giant chili welcomes guests when they walk in. Tinier chilies light up the wall. It’s dedicated to the restaurant, one of St. Jude’s biggest donors.
But it didn’t look like that when Jameshia Below was there. Below, a ULM pharmacy student, was a patient at St. Jude Children’s Research hospital 10 years ago.
“We didn’t have the Chili’s stuff yet. It was just being modeled,” Below said.
“The aquariums were there when I was. I remember all murals painted on the walls, too,” Below said.
Artists brought indoors what many patients can’t see outdoors. Seasons are painted on the walls and on the ceilings swirls of blue sky and wispy clouds.
Before ULM, she lived in Natchitoches except for the three months she received in-patient treatment from St. Jude in Memphis, Tenn.
Below said within that time she only went home once – to pack her bags to stay at St. Jude.
Her family stayed in the Target House, the long-term lodging facility for patients and their families.
She was 11. She had a swollen eye that just wouldn’t go away. Over the course of two days and a few doctors, Below arrived at St. Jude at four in the morning for a biopsy.
Below had a solid, malignant tumor. She had Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. According to St. Jude, more 70 percent of children with this type of cancer survive long-term if caught early.
Below didn’t quite understand what was going on or the severity of her situation.
“I understood I was sick and that I was being treated, but I just saw all these colors and nice people,” Below said.
There were other children who came to the hospital at the same time as Below and didn’t make it back out.
“You just wouldn’t see them anymore. I didn’t know at that time. I know now when I ask my parents questions about it,” Below said.
Below’s parents were nervous, but didn’t allow themselves to show her anything other than positivity despite the disbelief her mother, Andrea, felt when she found out about her daughter’s tumor.
“I was in total shock. Jameshia was a child who was never ill,” Andrea said.
Andrea focused on researching her daughter’s cancer and treatments.
“St. Jude is a Godsend. It is a place of hope. It is a place where you know you are not alone and your child is going to receive the best of care,” Andrea said.
Once Below completed her radiation treatment, she was sent home where she would then make frequent trips to St. Jude’s Shreveport location to continue chemotherapy. Below was happy when radiation was over. For most of her treatment, she was put to sleep. But during radiation she had to stay awake.
Below would have to lie in a large machine for an hour every week while a loud, screeching noise rang in her ears.
“I don’t like tight places,” Below said.
Below went through two chemotherapy treatments. She still has the scar from the port. After about a year of chemotherapy, Below showed up to her last appointment surprised with balloons, stuffed animals and cake.
It was her “No Mo Chemo” party St. Jude throws for its patients when they finish treatment. It was one of the happiest days of her life. Making it through cancer made up for missing out on sixth grade, Beta Club president and Quiz Bowl captain.
Below went on to serve as an Up til Dawn member, SGA vice president and Mardi Gras throughout her college career.
Below’s boyfriend, Edward Banks, admires the woman she is today. Below and Banks have only know each other for three months, but Banks knows this has made her into the strong person she is today.
“She will go out to her wits end to help somebody. She will give you her last if she had to,” Banks said.
One thing that always stuck with Below was the location of her tumor. She had to undergo treatments because surgery was tricky.
“With certain solid tumors you could remove it, but with it being by my eye it would have been to get rid of the eye to save…” Below said.
They chose treatments. But after her first biopsy, Below woke up fearing the worst.
“The first thing I said was, ‘I let them take my eye.’ I thought it was gone. It was all patched up and I couldn’t see. I guess I kind of blocked that out until now,” Below said.
Last summer, Below was officially declared cancer free by St. Jude. She does not have to return anymore unless by choice to continue research about her type of cancer.
Below said if she does choose to go back, it will hopefully be as an employee. It would be an honor to work for the place that saved her life, and turned what could have been a very dark time into a time she can look back on somewhat fondly.
