THE STORY
On September 20th Cecilia turned from a regular, cheery, 3 year old to a tired and cranky beast. She started falling asleep in the afternoons. When she was awake she cried and whined about everything. A couple of days later she developed a high fever in the night. I gave her Ibuprofen and it didn't go down, so I stayed awake with her all night that night checking her temperature (which got up to 104.5) and when I was able to I gave her a dose of children's Tylenol. An hour later her fever was down to 100 and I put her back to bed.
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Over the next two weeks Cecilia turned 4 years old and she remained weepy and tired. Every few days should would get a fever that would go up to around 102 and was easily managed with children's medicine. We took Cici to urgent care and they check for Strep and a UTI. Both tests were clear. Over the next week the fever continued. Cici also lost all color in her face and didn't want to attend Preschool. She took a nap each day, but still seemed always tired.
On Monday morning (Oct 8) Matt took Cecilia to our family doctor. The doctor seemed very concerned at how pale she was. Matt mentioned that my niece had childhood Leukemia around the same age. The doctor seemed to indicate that he thought that was a possibility. That really scared me. Doctors don't drop the C-word to parents unless they thinking it's highly probable. The doctor drew blood and said we would have results within 3 days. So we waited. On Tuesday morning the call came. The blood tests indicate that it was A.L.L. Leukemia. We needed to take her to Primary Children's Hospital immediately.
The very next morning Cecilia had an Echo-cardiogram and a three-fold surgery. (1) She got a port placed in her upper chest to more easily give medicines, draw blood, and administer chemo. (2) They took out some spinal fluids to test and add some chemo to her spine. (3) They aspirated her bone marrow for testing.
THE DIAGNOSIS
PRECURSER B-CELL LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA.
Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many immature lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). ALL Leukemia may affect red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Because Cecilia has been so healthy up to this point and based on the current treatments her odds of recovery are more than 90%. My entire focus has been on how hard the next 2 1/2 years are going to be for her.
TREATMENT
Cecilia will be doing 2 1/2 years of chemotherapy. The first month includes steroids and has made her gain considerable weight. That weight should fall off again after that first month. Yes, she will lose her hair. We have already purchased some soft caps and will consider wigs if she wants them.
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