Angel Found At UNMH

Cesar Quesada knows nurses.

Lots of them.

With 11 years of frequent hospital visits, 17 surgeries and eight rounds of different chemotherapy treatments since he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer at age 6, you might expect Quesada to be something of a nurse aficionado.

Most are nice enough, he says, though, yes, he’s also known a few whose bedside manner was a bit stiff.

And then there is Andrea Solano.

So what do you say about a nurse who has become so much more than the person who takes vitals and brings medications? What do you say about someone who has become both caregiver and cruise director, comedian, party planner, counselor, confidante, nag, mother, sister, friend?

What do you say about a woman who, despite doctors who shake their heads, shrug their shoulders and admit they don’t know what else to do, can still convince you that you will pull through. You will live.

“She gives me hope,” says Quesada, 17. “That’s no small thing.”

	Words of praise “There are many people that simply pass through our lives without leaving a mark, but over time I’ve learned that there is a very select few that carry us when we fall, help us continue when our chances are slim, and leave a mark on our hearts that we will never forget. Andrea is one of these very few. She is a friend, a mother, a sister and someone who I can always count on to give me hope and strength to carry on.” - Cesar Quesada, “Not Just a Nurse, But Also an Angel”

What do you say? All of that. You write it down. You share your words, your thoughts.

Quesada did that, composing an essay about Solano titled “Not Just a Nurse, But Also an Angel.”

Because of that essay, Solano, who works at the University of New Mexico Hospital’s pediatric clinic in Albuquerque, is one of three finalists for the national 2012 Extraordinary Healer Award for Oncology Nursing.

The contest – sponsored by Cure magazine, Amgen Oncology and Breakaway from Cancer – invites cancer patients and their families to nominate their favorite oncology nurse by writing an essay about that nurse’s compassion, helpfulness and expertise. Quesada, a junior at Valley High School, is the youngest writer to have his essay chosen for the final round, an award spokesman said.

The winning nurse, who will receive an all-expense-paid spa trip for two, will be announced Thursday at the Oncology Nursing Society’s 37th Annual Congress in New Orleans.

Solano and husband, Mark, and Quesada and his mother, Carolina Rojas, will attend the ceremonies along with the other finalists.

Solano already feels like a winner.

“This award, it’s an honor, it’s humbling,” says the 31-year-old Rio Rancho mother of two who has worked at UNMH for eight years, five of those in the pediatric clinic. “It’s my patient and his family telling me I’ve done a good job.”

Tears come easy to Solano’s eyes as we chat, quite a departure for the usually cheery nurse known for bestowing Quesada with crazy hats, practical jokes and funny songs that keep him laughing.

Solano isn’t the only one who cries. Rojas, too, frequently dabs her eyes with tissue.

It has been a rough journey for her and husband, Rogelio Quesada, hard watching their son battle cancer for so long.

Solano has helped make that journey bearable.

“She takes care of all of us,” Rojas says. “She calls to see how things are, what we need. She keeps things fun for us, for my son, even when he is very sick.”

Because he is.

He suffered abdominal pain after a fall in the playground in 2001. Tests revealed that the pain was caused not by the fall but a tumor on Quesada’s kidney. The tumor was transitional cell carcinoma, a cancer typically found in aging patients but rarely among the young.

Quesada is one of only five children in the country diagnosed with it; he is also the youngest, Rojas says.

None of the treatments has stopped the sarcoma’s onslaught. The cancer has metastasized into the lungs, liver, colon and pelvis.

Still, he manages to maintain a 4.3 grade-point average and play club team soccer.

Oh, he’s a smart one. Serious and, yes, a little persnickety.

Which led to one of Solano’s favorite April Fools’ tricks. Quesada had been upset during a previous chemotherapy session because he was not seated in his usual recliner chair, so that day Solano turned “his” chair into a throne. She rolled out a red carpet before the chair and made a crown, sash and scepter for him.

From that day on, he was King Cesar.

It brought him down to earth. But it also reminded him that he is more than just Cancer Patient Cesar.

Last November, as Quesada lay recovering from surgery, Solano organized a surprise birthday party, even writing and performing a special birthday song for him.

“You see their pain, the hard times and you want to take it away. So you make their experience as special as you can,” she says. “You take care of them for so long that they become part of your family.”

That, she admits, makes her job painful at times. Her patients don’t always make it.

“I told myself, follow my heart and it will be OK,” she says as the tears come again for her and Rojas. “It doesn’t matter if it hurts in the end. It will be OK.”

Quesada is now undergoing treatment every three weeks in a clinical trial being conducted at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. In a couple of weeks, he will undergo tests to see whether the treatment is working.

No one is sure what comes next if it isn’t.

“There are no more kinds of treatment to use,” Rojas said. “They have tried them all.”

Quesada, frail and pale but still feeling healthy and feisty, says his spirits are high. He has hope.

Because he also has Solano.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal