Riley likes to tell jokes, play Legos, read, movies and video games. He has a new love for playing baseball.
Just before his seventh birthday, Riley was experiencing fevers, bone pain, and fatigue. He was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL. ALL has a long treatment plan of 3 years. The first phase is induction and this aims to kill all the leukemia cancer cells with chemotherapy. The next phase is the consolidation phase and this aims to kill any cancer cells that may still be present in the body. Then patients will enter maintenance phase. This is the longest phase of treatment and can last 2 years. During maintenance phase, children usually are monitored very closely to look for any return of leukemia cells while continuing chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy has been a lot harder on Riley than we expected. He lost his hair which was a shock for all of us. His younger brother was shifted around to other family members during diagnosis due to hospital stays. We are lucky to have a lot of support from family and friends!
Hope session by Heather Earle Photography.