Help Baby Grayson – Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

My Sisters story… Baby Boy - Grayson Ralph De Lange diagnosed with ALL – Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia a day before he is one month old. Today Grayson is 10 weeks old and has been at the Red Cross Children’s hospital for 6 weeks. It is expected that his treatment duration can be as long as 3 years. This fund is to assist the family in the treatment costs and the costs relating to having his mama and assistance with him full time.

On the 7^th of November 2017 our lives became richer when we were blessed with another beautiful baby boy Grayson Ralph De Lange born in Port Elizabeth at 3.1kg.

The first 2 weeks were heaven with our little angel whom was a lot more chilled to his older brother.

Mommy started noticing him becoming niggly and thought it was winds, as his brother struggled with colic, he also had some blue marks on his body.

We tried all the self-medication suggested but nothing seemed to ease our little boy.

I then decided to take him to the paediatrician and was told it was reflux and was given Infant Gaviscon (Saterday 02.12.2017) the blue marks were ignored, that mothers instinct kept nagging at me and so I took him to another paediatrician for a second opinion on Monday only to be told the same, it is reflux and bad winds and was given Nexium, the blue marks were not commented on. When we got home he was still very fussy and seemed to be getting so much worse so I decided to call the paediatrician I had just seen and was advised to change his milk as he was being topped up. I then took him to our family doctor and was told the same story winds and reflux. I was still not convinced and was then advised to take him to the chiropractor which we did, this did not seem to help either. I made another appointment with another paediatrician whom we had seen in the past the faithful doctor Wayne Jones, I showed him the blue marks and explained everything as I had 3 times before with the other doctors. He immediately requested full blood works. We were sent home while we waited for the results. I remember the next steps so clearly went to Dischem and as soon as I got home it was the call from Doctor Jones that would change everything get to the hospital as Grayson needs to be admitted immediately. Got to the hospital and we were moved to High care in the paediatric ward. Upon arrival at the ward we were moved to Isolation within High Care. To say I was scared was an understatement as none of the nurses could answer my questions the response I got was my boy was very sick. They had to setup drips, a catheter which they struggled for over 30 minutes to insert the lines and eventually my baby boy had a line put in through his head. My mom arrived shortly after and the wait for doctor Jones felt like it was taking for ever.. When he got to us his words still ring clear... I have no other way of telling you this but Grayson has leukaemia… the words that bring your world crashing down… My boy? My Little Babyboy not even 1 month old has leukaemia? Devastated was not the word, we could not comprehend the news, we had just lost my aunt to a nasty battle with cancer whom we still grieve deeply for. Grayson was transferred to the NICU and he was monitored closely. Doctor Jones then preceded to make arrangements for Grayson to be transferred to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. On Friday the 8^th of December at 2am Grayson and I left Port Elizabeth on the Red Cross aeroplane, during the flight my mind was a whirlwind my emotions were running high how could this happen, what next, how, why, I had just said goodbye to my incredible husband and eldest son, 5 years old and already I missed them terribly, we landed after 4am in Cape Town and we were then transported to the Red Cross Children’s hospital greeted by their wonderful staff. Once Grayson had been settled in the NICU – isolation ward I met the amazing Doctor Marc Hendricks and his team whom then explained everything to us. Thank you for reading my story to continue following Grayson’s journey follow his page on Facebook… Grayson Ralph De Lange.