Hilton Head Island boy stricken with leukemia prepared to 'fight with smiles'

Alex Arrieta looked deep in thought as nurses prepared to wheel him into an operating room last week for a bone marrow extraction, spinal tap, a round of chemotherapy and other procedures.

The worry on the 9-year-old Hilton Head Island boy's face was the last thing his father wanted to see. So Brandon Arrieta, 43, slipped a speaker next to Alex's pillow and hit play on the fourth grader's favorite song.

Ooga-Chaka Ooga-OogaOoga-Chaka Ooga-OogaI can't stop this feelingDeep inside of meGirl, you just don't realizeWhat you do to me.

As Blue Swede's cover of "Hooked on a Feeling," filled the room, Alex's nurses started to dance and "he got a big, beautiful smile on his face," Brandon Arrieta said. "We could see them all just dancing their way down the hallway, wheeling him away."

A TRADEMARK GRIN

There have been few other moments Alex has needed cheering up since he was diagnosed Feb. 6 with acute myeloid leukemia -- an aggressive cancer of the blood.

Nicknamed 'Smiles' when he was a baby, the 9-year-old has weathered the effects of hours of chemotherapy each night and greeted each morning with his trademark grin, Brandon Arrieta said.

As he is confined to his hospital room in Savannah's Memorial University Medical Center for the next six to eight months, Alex has kept himself laughing by firing Nerf arrows at his nurses and directing his dad in shaving off his scruff, one swipe at a time.

Arrieta said he sported a cartoonish mustache on Monday, in the last hours before he, his 15-year-old son and Alex shaved their heads together.

Outside the hospital, the fourth grader's attitude has been catching.

His parents, Brandon and Caroline Arrieta, are holding a bone marrow donor drive at their Hilton Head restaurant, Hugo's Seafood and Steakhouse on William Hilton Parkway, on Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. While the family may still learn one of Alex's siblings is a match, the family was touched by the national need for more donors.

His classmates at Hilton Head Island Elementary School for the Creative Arts were also inspired.

When Arrieta went to the school to pick up his 7-year-old daughter on Friday, he found hundreds of students wearing orange for leukemia awareness, selling baked goods for Relay for Life and chanting his son's name.

"I lost it. It was just too much," Arrieta said. "And there are people praying for him (on) every other square foot of this island."

The school also gave Alex hundreds of cards and send him video messages.

On Monday, though, Alex faced another hard day. He let his aunt, Andrea Hayes, shave off his brown mop of "mad-scientist" hair, which his father had promised him just last week he could grow out.

"He wanted me to take it, instead of chemo," said Hayes, a hairdresser whose family owns both locations of British Open Pub. "Unfortunately, it's got to beat you down to get you healthy."

'FIGHT WITH SMILES'

Alex's grandfather and uncle are survivors of colon cancer, and the disease killed his great-uncle a year and a half ago.

Still, a similar diagnosis wasn't on his mother's mind when she began searching for the sudden source of Alex's headaches last month.

When she insisted on a blood panel on Feb. 6, Caroline Arrieta thought there might be an issue with his blood sugar or thyroid. Instead, the family learned over the phone that Alex either had a serious infection or cancer. After driving to the Savannah hospital, they confirmed the diagnosis.

"At this point, cancer is the most evil word in the dictionary in our family," Brandon Arrieta said. "You're just not prepared for that kind of conversation."

Alex, however, was able to join two clinical trials, vastly improving his outlook. The rest of the family is learning to "fight with smiles," Brandon Arrieta said.

"The mornings are good. The mornings are great," he said. "He's just happy, sweet little Alex."

Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 9:55 AM with the headline "Hilton Head Island boy stricken with leukemia prepared to 'fight with smiles'."