Five-year-old Sam Eagan was having trouble sitting still. Like most kids his age, Sam had a mind of his own. His mother, Keri Eagan of Kenmore, was concerned, but brushed it off as the spirited actions of a growing boy.

She had no way of knowing at the time that Sam’s inability to sit still was an early sign of an unseen tumor growing on his lower spin.

When Sam was three, Keri and her husband, Brady, noticed a delay in speech and temperament issues that prompted them to bring Sam to a specialist. Despite countless visits and testing, there never was a definitive diagnoses. Doctors concluded he suffered from social and emotional delays with underlying anxiety issues.

Keri and Brady figured Sam was an adorable little boy who would just need a little extra attention and structure as he matured. The couple then welcomed a second baby boy into the world in 2008, Brady Eagan, who is now 18 months. Keri continued juggling motherhood, marriage and working for Nintendo in Redmond.

She monitored Sam’s progress, seeking out a psychologist who could work with Sam and build a relationship as he grew older. The appointments were set, but Keri kept canceling them because Sam was getting sick. At first it was a fever, slight respiratory problems and constipation.

The symptoms subsided, Sam got better and life went on.

In early January of last year, Sam began scratching an itch below his waist and on his bottom area. There was no visible rash. The itching went on for weeks, along with extreme constipation and the inability to urinate.

“As a mother, I was really concerned,” Keri explained, recounting her son’s symptoms. “I took him to the doctors, but they kept saying it was nothing. I would go home knowing my son was uncomfortable, but there wasn’t much I could do. It was a helpless feeling.”

As the weeks went on, and Sam’s symptoms got worse, Keri grew more and more concerned.

“He would refuse to sit at the dinner table and part of me thought maybe it was just because of the developmental delays,” she said. “Looking back, I kick myself for not acting sooner, but I had no way of knowing.”

During a family vacation to Eastern Washington in May, Sam began to act out and was complaining of a tummy ache. Keri took her son into a local medical clinic. When she raised the possibility of a tumor of some kind the doctors told her the only way to see a mass would be to do a CT scan and the radiation levels were unsafe for a child Sam’s age. When a blood test came back with an elevated White Blood cell count, the doctors finally scheduled a CT scan. The scan showed that Sam’s bladder was extremely enlarged. He was rushed to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

After three days at Children’s, doctors discovered an erosion in Sam’s spine which turned out to be a sizable mass measuring 8 cm by 8 cm. The mass was entangled in the nerves in Sam’s spine. Doctors performed a biopsy on the mass and discovered it was Ewing’s Sarcoma, a bone and soft tissue cancer that occurs most frequently in teenage males.

“Sam was so young when the symptoms started, the doctors didn’t think to look for Ewings,” Keri explained.

The tumor in Sam’s spine was localized, which was a relief according to Keri, but doctors were unable to remove the mass because of its placement on the spine. To shrink the tumor, Sam began a nine-month process of chemotherapy treatments and six weeks of radiation.

“As a parent, you prepare yourself for the worst, but hope for the best,” Keri said, who points to the support of her and her husband’s parents as playing a major role in her ability to keep pushing on. “It never gets easier. You just learn to deal and cherish every moment you have with your child.”

Patients with localized Ewing’s Sarcoma have an average survival rate of five years.

“It’s hard to see the positive in all of this, but with Sam being so young, he doesn’t fully grasp what it means to have cancer,” Keri said. “He’s a trooper and just keeps plugging along.”

To help with Sam’s anxiety, the staff at Children’s have gone out of their way to make the hospital visits easier, Keri said. Members of Child Life, a special program at Children’s, created visual aids for Sam that depict each step of his treatment during his visits. He now informs the nurses how to do their jobs, joked Keri.

“This hasn’t been an easy road and I realize I won’t always have the answers. Just because you’re a mom doesn’t mean you’ll know what to do,” she explained. “I just have to believe that God has a larger plan and a purpose for Sam’s life.”

Lindsay Larin can be reached at 425.453.4602.

To learn more about Ewing’s Sarcoma, visit Children’s Hospital at www.childrenshospital.org.