ORANGE BEACH – Traci Patrizi would rather not seen her son, Kameron, with a bald head. Even if he did pull it off.

“He was very handsome as a bald-headed kid,” she said.

On Thursday Kameron and his buddies and family members from the Memphis area were joking around at the end of the dock at Zeke’s Marina talking about the snapper and other fish caught aboard the Eagle Express.

Traci proudly showed a cellphone photo of Kameron with a big snapper. The snapper had to go back because it was out of season.

The picture also showed off a healthy, full head of thick hair. For effect Kameron, 16, standing next to his mom, grinned as he ran his hand through it.

“They were shocked,” Traci said of the medical staff at St. Jude’s, where Kameron is a cancer patient. “Within about eight weeks he was needing a haircut.”

Mom and son, along with dad John and sister Kennedy, came to town to relive a baseball trip to the Gulf Coast when Kameron 13. He brought along three of his teammates from that trip as well. Also making the Paul Baggett and family. Paul along with Kameron’s dad coached the boys for many years.

As a cancer patient at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Kameron was asked if he wanted to have a Make A Wish trip or adventure. The Make A Wish Foundation that grants wishes for children diagnosed with a life-threatening condition.

Two years after playing in the world series in gulf shores, his life changed.

“At the end of the summer he was diagnosed with a very rare form of lymphoma,” Traci said. “He has it in his left tibia. Normally it attacks your lymph nodes, and is rarely found in the bone. He is one of a few cases of kids at St. Jude’s to have lymphoma in a bone.”

During the research study being done on Kameron, they found two brain tumors doctors are cautiously monitoring that as well.

“We get brain scans now often to watch for changes or growth,” Traci said. “It’s too risky to go in and test. Until he has some of the side effects from it and until the side effects are so strong, then it’s not worth the risk.”

But on Thursday, with a beaming Kameron and his thick mane of hair, he and buddies Ripp Inman, Ty Polk and Brent Baggett enjoyed reliving a fishing trip. The friends have played baseball together since age 9.

“The boys all talked about what a great time they had here in Gulf Shores and too bad that they had to spend so much time playing baseball,” Traci said. “This was one of the things they did as a team. The coaches took the whole team.

“We’re trying to relive everything that they did. We’re staying at the Beach Club and doing all the things they did when they were 13.”

The staff at Zeke’s Marina, Wolf Bay Lodge Restaurant, Orange Beach Charter Fishing Association and paddle board and kayak rentals at the marina made sure it was great time.

“Zeke’s gave the boys matching marina shirts and visors, we met Ms. Iris Ethridge and she told us stories about Gulf Shores and gave them pens for school,” Traci said. “George that does fish prints made them each one to take home, the manager if Wolf Bay Lodge invited our group back to enjoy a hook and cook dinner on the house and Lynn from the paddle boards and kayak rental hooked us up with a great day of fun on the water.

“Captain Doug Price and his crew went above and beyond to make sure we all had a great time on the Eagle Express. We are so thankful to everyone at Zeke’s for their hospitality and kindness. “It was a trip we will never forget.”

And it was a day far away from cancers and chemo, for a little while anyway. They’ll be back in the hospital and visiting medical staff soon enough.

Kameron finished the chemo that took his hair in November, and Traci is hoping he won’t need more. They closely monitor him with monthly checkups.

“We’re going back next month and we’ll spend four days there,” Traci said. “With the type that he has it still shows up on the PET scans and MRIs, the tumor is still there, but they are hopeful that its new growth and new bone tissue and things like that.

“The bone, because of all of the damage from the chemo and the cancer, it’s too soft to test. They’re hoping that next month, if it still shows up, that it’s still there and the bone will be hard enough to test. Until they go in and pull tissue out of the bone they won’t know for sure.”

During the four-day stay Kameron is also going to see an orthopedic doctor.

“He will decide if the leg is strong enough to withstand the test surgery,” Traci said. “He said it’s not worth the risk of fracturing it.”

His chemo treatment was among the most aggressive used to battle cancer.

“They had to monitor him very closely,” Traci said. “It’s allowed to be in your body for 24 hours to fight the cancer and then they have to immediately get it out.

“He has to be inpatient to do that. They have to check all those numbers to make sure there’s no side effects or anything like that.”

This fall Kameron and Baggett and Polk will be at the same high school together and Traci hopes they graduate together as well.

“Ripp lives in Arkansas, but these three guys will go to the same high school for the next two years together,” Traci said. “We’re looking forward to watching them play ball together. Now if they could get Ripp back over to Memphis they could all be on the same baseball field again.”