Acute lymphoblastic Leukemia

Liam is an amazing son! He is loving and caring, he loves to play and use his imagination. He loves to laugh so it doesn’t take much to get a laugh out of him, a silly face or noise, he also loves jokes! He loves cars, trains, fixing thing with his tools. He love to be outside! He is very smart and loves to talk and read books, he will be three in April and I can only imagine all

of the new adventures that will bring!

Just before Liam’s second birthday, he came down with a double ear infection and was put on antibiotics. A couple weeks later, he was still having unexplained fevers and fatigue. I knew something wasn’t right and I thought the ear infection was still present. When his doctor said his ears were clear, we immediately talked about getting blood work done since he had very swollen lymph nodes on his neck, as well as abnormal bruising. About 3 hours after the blood work, we were called back to the office and our doctor shared that Liam was extremely dehydrated, very anemic, and she was 98% positive but it could be leukemia. We were sent directly to the ER to begin testing, and we’re giving the official diagnosis just two days later. Liam started treatment right away.

Liam was put into the very high risk protocol for treatment because of his bone marrow results. His treatment was very intense over five phases that were each eight weeks long. Each round consisted of weekly chemotherapy including four rounds of high-dose methotrexate which needed a 4 to 5 day hospital stay each round. He also had an allergic reaction to a certain type of chemotherapy, in place of an IV treatment for that chemo, he had to have 56 leg injections. The biggest struggle for our family was that my husband had to leave for deployment in August and just returned home. Before my husband left, we did receive the great news that Liam had reached remission! Liam is now in maintenance, which will be two and half years of monthly chemotherapy.

After Liams diagnosis, our daily life became clinic visits of chemotherapy and treatment. It was a big adjustment since Liam was involved in many activities and classes with other children, he has not be able to attend those but we have tried to find new activities that are safe for him. I did not return back to work as an elementary teacher and with having a deployed husband, it has been a lot of responsibility on my part, but I have also found a strength within myself that I didn’t know I had. In these struggles we have found ways to remain close and supportive of each other in many ways, as we would cherish any support from you all.