Adriel was diagnosed on May 16th, 2023. He fell My son fell on May 5th at school and bumped his head. The accident caused bad bruising to the face. We only took a cat scan and then got sent home. A couple weeks later he didn’t look so well, he started looking really pale and was sleeping a lot during the day and had no energy, I took him to the ER and they did blood work and rushed us to Loma Linda.
We have had to be isolated from anything and everything to keep my son safe. My son will be missing up to 2 years of school. I feel cancer stole these years from us. It has caused emotional and physical stress.
He’s a sweet boy. He wants to play soccer when he beats cancer!
Maya loves to spend her time dancing, singing, and watching her favorite movies(Trolls, Sing, Luca, Disney Princesses, Miraculous the Ladybug, and Frozen) she likes wearing her princess dresses.
Maya was diagnosed with ALL on 02/07/2022. Before that we noticed, she had many fever, bruises on her legs, and tiny red spots around her body.
Because of treatment, she can’t go to school, no family visits, we can’t do activities with others, she can’t play with other kids, and no traveling.
When she started treatment, the arts & crafts were her escape materials to enjoy her time at the hospital or home. She started building her first LEGO during her first month at the hospital, by then she was able to build advanced levels of LEGO for adults and now she has a big collection!
Archie is an old soul! We often describe him as a 70 yr old man in a 7 yr olds body. He’s very logical and blunt. He’s particularly and a little peculiar. He loves video games, Domino’s pizza, and the color green. Archie laughs the most at poop jokes (perhaps one of the very few “7 yr old” tendencies he has)! He loves his cat, Lucy, the very most!
Archie’s only symptom was randomly throwing up every other day for a little over a week, very odd for leukemia. The pediatrician thought it was the flu. My wife’s gut said “It’s more” and took him to urgent care where we learned his white blood cell count was nearly 700,000.
We are about a year into treatment… constant chemo. We’ve clocked about 100 days in the hospital over various treatment cycles. We’ve spent so much time in isolation to keep Archie safe. We have missed family events, play dates with friends, and all other parts of “normal” life.
This has made us so careful and scared. We’re worried about spending time in groups because of germ exposure so we are isolated. Our other two kids have had to sacrifice their lives as well to help keep Archie safe. My wife and I have had to spend more time apart than ever collectively in our 12 years together. It’s also made us so grateful for the special moments we get; for any “normal” moment and for the simple opportunity to just be together.
Archie, historically, has been very loud about not doing things he doesn’t want to. It made us worried about how he’d handle a treatment regime that he has no control over but he’s been incredible at dealing with the reality and taking the disappointments. We’re just so proud of him!
Brennan is a sweet kid with a big sense of humor. His goldendoodle Milo usually makes him laugh. He likes football and playing video games with his dad and school friends.
Brennan was a football player before diagnosis. He had pain below his rib a few weeks before diagnosis that we thought was a bruised rib from a tackle. After continuous pain, paleness, and sickness we took him to the doctor for a third time where they did bloodwork that led to a cancer diagnosis in the fall of 2021.
Brennan has bone marrow biopsies, several lumbar punctures, blood transfusions, and chemotherapy infusion treatments.
Cancer diagnosis has put some limitations on our lives. Guiding through hospital stays and learning how to cope with chemo side effects has been a challenge.
Brennan has been in chemotherapy treatment for over two years and he finished treatment in February of this year. He will be a cancer survivor!
Dominic is very playful but also mischievous. He fights with the siblings but then can be extra lovable. He is spunky. He is determined and very hard-headed. He is wonderful. Loves animals superheroes and construction vehicles.
He was diagnosed with ALL on May 24, 2022. He was pale and feverish for almost a month. They gave him an antibiotic for an ear infection but he was not getting better so they switched and when he still wasn’t getting better, I took him to the ER. I then noticed lumps on his neck.
We struggle every day more than others. It’s hard to give all 3 kids their individual attention due to the little one illness. It has changed our lives because we are in constant worry about Dominic. We are stressed all the time juggling all 3 kids. (16,11,4) The older 2 are awesome but sometimes they also need alone time with mom.
Eva is tough as nails, very stubborn and determined, but incredibly thoughtful and kind. She loves people fiercely, and always lends a helping hand. Her hugs are the absolute best, and her giggles can improve anyone’s bad mood. Through it all, she’s been so brave and positive, and we are constantly amazed.
Eva was diagnosed In April of 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns. We feel so lucky to live within an hour of Boston Children’s Hospital and Dada-Farber, where Eva is treated, and we were able to begin treatment right away.
After a week of pretty high fevers and a wide range of symptoms, Eva had been seen by every NP in our pediatrician’s office. At nearly 2.5 years old and with a twin brother, bruises are common in our house, so we didn’t notice that hers were more pronounced, or quicker to form. As the days went on and her color got worse, we kept bringing her back in to be seen. Each time we were assured that it was probably just a virus, she was COVID tested several times, and ultimately it was the development of petechiae that led to a complete blood work-up at our local Emergency Room. After a few hours there, we were rushed by ambulance to Boston Children’s; the ER doc didn’t want to say anything without confirmation from Boston, but he knew then it was leukemia.
Well, being a cancer family during a pandemic has made things both easier and harder. Easier because everyone else in the world was taking the same precautions as we were: masking, hand-washing, social distancing, and staying home. Harder because everyone around us became a possible vector for not only normal illnesses but also COVID. Our circle shrunk down to just a handful of trusted people, both Eva and her brother were pulled from daycare immediately, and we went into illness-prevention mode as a family unit.
In addition to worrying about her getting sick, we also had to watch as the induction phase made her all but unable to walk. For almost a month she had to be carried everywhere, as we worked on strengthening her leg and core muscles that had withered away during a month of intense in-patient treatment. She has learned to run, walk, hop, and dance all over again, but she still tires easily and often struggles to keep up with other kids her age (including her twin brother).
Eva was switched to the high-risk arm of our protocol after the first month of treatment because, despite being in remission, there were minuscule amounts of leukemia cells still found during a standard bone marrow transplant. These residual cells meant that she would not be able to avoid some of the more harsh chemotherapies, as we had hoped. Eva has had hundreds of doses of chemo administered by mouth, into her port (she refers to her port access as her “push” since the butterfly needle is pushed into the port in her chest), and into her spinal fluid to prevent leukemia cells from hiding there.
Eva’s Dad has become a stay-at-home parent to manage her treatment and to care for Eva and her brother (since we don’t feel safe sending them into a group environment), while her Mom goes to work each day. Our lives are completely different than they were pre-diagnosis, although much of that has as much to do with being a cancer family during a raging pandemic as it does with leukemia. We are now active in supporting other families in our area with similar diagnoses, and host blood drives for Boston Children’s Hospital as a way of paying it forward: without those blood products Eva would not be here today, and we will continue to do everything we can to make sure there’s stock on the shelves for other kids.
No cancer treatment road is easy, and she has had to endure so much, but we are thankful every day for how her treatment has progressed thus far and we would love the chance to document this moment in time so we can be sure she sees it reflected in our home as she grows. She’s so young, and while we look forward to a day when cancer isn’t at the forefront of our lives, we also don’t want to forget what we’ve done together.
Since Eva’s session, she has relapsed for a second time, this time in her CNS. After what we thought was a fully successful bone marrow transplant from her twin brother, we are back to battle the beast for a third time, this time with CAR-T as our expected treatment path. The photos from TGHP simply remind us of her strength and vitality and capture our family and support system without whom this road would be even more challenging.
