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Nurse and patient reunite after more than 20 years

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Andrea Schmidt, in yellow shirt and hat, with her family team, which has been participating in Relay for Life for years.

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Oncology nurse Andrea Schmidt saved this picture, drawn by her patient, Paul Lauer, for 30 years. Lauer, a leukemia survivor, reunited with Schmidt a few years ago during a Relay for Life event. The pair will perform the ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday at the Chartiers-Houston Relay for Life.

In 1987, 6-year-old Paul Lauer was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Long days were spent at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh and Hillman Cancer Center at Washington Hospital, where Paul received chemotherapy. Memories from that time are hazy, but Paul remembers feeling nauseous and tired and fearing the many medical procedures. He remembers lying in the back of his parents’ station wagon on the ride home, his energy already zapped.

Andrea Schmidt remembers that time clearly.

“When I first met Paul … he was a little guy sitting in the waiting room with his mommy,” recalled Schmidt, an oncology nurse. “He was quite pale and quite small, but he was a strong little boy. He was strong despite everything going on.”

For about a year, Andrea was a part of Paul’s care. One day, he handed her a picture that he had drawn.

“It’s a garden with trees and rainbows. … It has all of these great things, and then there are some raindrops that are quite big. The nurse analyzing that saw it as a storm within the calm. He signed it and gave it to me and I had it laminated. It followed me all over my professional career, in different departments. I would take it with me and pin it up,” Andrea said. “Whether he knew it or not, he had given this nurse strength.”

After a few months, Paul and his parents, Stephen and Patricia, were told the cancer was gone, and, as often happens with medical professionals and their patients, Andrea and Paul lost contact.

In 1989, Paul’s cancer returned. This time, he needed a bone marrow transplant. His older sister, Joleen, was found to be the best donor. Because bone marrow transplants weren’t being performed on anyone younger than 14 in the region, the family had to travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the procedure.

Paul Lauer, right, with his sister, Joleen, who donated bone marrow and a kidney to her brother.

Paul was expected to have a six-to-eight-week hospital stay, but his body rejected the transplant. After more than four months, Paul was finally getting stronger and able to leave the hospital.

Though he was often tired and had long-term affects from treatment, including weakened eyesight and skin burns, Paul grew up, graduated from Trinity, then Waynesburg College, and got a job at Washington Financial.

In 2011, though, Paul was given unexpected news. Doctors diagnosed him with stage four kidney disease. They concluded the combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatments he had as a child damaged his kidneys.

Kidneys produce a hormone called EPO that prompts the bone marrow to make red blood cells, which then carry oxygen throughout the body. When the kidneys are damaged, they do not make enough EPO. As a result, the bone marrow makes fewer red blood cells. The persistent fatigue suddenly made sense.

Paul would once again need a transplant, and once again, Joleen was the best donor. The procedure was done Feb. 9.

“It felt like a switch was turned on,” Paul said. “Every day, I was feeling more and more energy that I never had before.”

With his new energy, Paul started participating in fun runs and 5k runs, including Relay for Life, the signature fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.

At one such event in Chartiers Township, Paul descended the stage after having just shared his story with other survivors and loved ones.

“All of a sudden, I hear ‘Paul! Paul!’ and I see this red-headed woman,” he recalled.

Though it took Paul a few minutes to remember her, Andrea had never forgotten her patient.

“There he was, after all these years. There was my little boy. Only now he was a young man and I was an older nurse,” Andrea said. “In our profession, we don’t often get to see people again. We give them gifts and they give us gifts, and they go off, just like your children. It’s not often we get the pleasure to see them as time goes on.”

Since that first re-introduction, Paul and Andrea have a mini-reunion every year during the Relay.

“We try to do a lap or two together as our own little team,” Andrea said.

Paul enjoys talking to the other survivors and families about their experiences.

“I feel like a pioneer. With technology and ever-changing practices in how they treat cancer, I can say, ‘Your son or daughter looks great. My skin had a reaction. The treatment they have today is so much better for kids,'” he said. “There’s a lot of talking with other families. I really enjoy hearing other people’s stories, and how great Children’s Hospital is, taking care of children and their families.”

This year, Paul and Andrea will perform the ribbon-cutting that kicks off the Chartiers-Houston Relay for Life at Allison Park Elementary School.

“It’s definitely a big honor, not just for me, but for everybody who supported me – friends, family, the community,” said Paul. “I don’t feel like it’s just me. Everybody is behind me.”

Andrea, whose family team has made the Relay a tradition in honor of loved ones who have died, including Andrea’s mother, said she is also honored to be at Paul’s side.

“He’s a wonderful young man, a success, and an amazing, strong person,” she said. “I don’t think patients can appreciate the strength and courage they have. They are strong people and the gifts they give us are unbelievable.”

Relay for Life starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at Allison Park Elementary School, 803 McGovern Road, Houston. For more information, visit www.cancer.org.

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