My 7 year old has Leukemia

If that isn't an attention grabber.  If you have wondered where I disappeared to, it was to the hospital.  It was a long tough road to get a diagnosis, but when it finally happened I was not ready for it.  Lets recap...

In March of 2011 my newly minted 7 year old complain of heal pain.  We took him to a pediatric urgent care in the middle of the night.  They did xrays and determined the swelling was due to a sprain not a break.  We gave him tylenol, ice and bandaged it.  For awhile the pain went away.  In the summer the pain returned.  This time it was on the other foot.  We again wrapped it, iced it and gave him tylenol.  Nothing helped.  We made a visit to the family dr who told us, it was tendonitis and to keep him off it.  I was livid.  By this time he had not walked in a week because of the pain.  He was crawling everywhere.  I told her he wasn't walking and therefore wasn't on it. Her response?  "Oh good."  She totally did not understand what I was telling her.  She got snippy with me and asked if I wanted to see an Orthopedist.  I said I did, I honestly didn't care who she sent us to as long as it was someone who actually wanted to help.  We saw the orthopedist and she diagnosed it was Severs.  We took him to therapy for 2 months.  While he maintained his strength the pain persisted and he was still not walking.  Back to the orthopedist for more testing.  Blood work and an MRI and more xrays.  This time we saw some shading on the xrays, shading in the MRI and his blood work was all over the place.  We repeated the blood work and it actually came back better.  We also did a bone scan and a soft tissue scan.

By this time my 7 year old has now had an MRI, 2 sets of labs done, xrays at least 4 times, a soft tissue scan and a bone density scan.  We were told the possibilities were Cancer or Arthritis. We waited for the test results with baited breath.  Finally, the orthopedist said she thought it was Arthritis.  But that only the rheumatologist could give a definite diagnosis.  The Rheumatologist ordered another MRI, this time of his legs.  And he wanted a bone marrow biopsy.  He wasn't convinced he was leaning more towards leukemia.  Meanwhile I was a human pretzel.  I was scared.  Really scared.  I didn't sleep.  I didn't eat.  When we got the diagnosis it was Sunday morning.  I was home with the kids and my husband was at the hospital with my 7 year old.  He told me over the phone, "It is leukemia."  I broke down.

My 4 year old ran and locked himself in his room.  Momma was crying hysterically and he was scared.  I pulled myself together, I knew I had 8 other kids to care for.  And I had to tell them.  If hearing the diagnosis was the hardest moment of my life, then telling the kids was the 2nd hardest.  My oldest said, "I didn't know life could be this hard."  And my heart broke again because kids should not have to know this pain and fear.

He has spent a week in the hospital now.  We are hoping he can come home tomorrow.  He needs to go back every week for his chemo, twice a week to therapy.  And we will hope and pray he will go into remission and kick this thing in the butt.  Because I need my son to live.