Mohsin is an artist. He wants to be scientist and loves planets. He loves to play with lego. Anytime he can, he buys a new lego set!
Mohsin is an artist. He wants to be scientist and loves planets. He loves to play with lego. Anytime he can, he buys a new lego set!
I cannot forget those painful days. Mohsin was in day care. He was three years old at that time. He was sick for the whole year. He was getting fevers almost every 15 days. He was not getting better until he was prescribed antibiotics. I was very worried. The last six months were worst of all. He appeared very pale, was tired all the time, and getting frequent infectious.
Being a mother I was too worried. I thought that something was wrong but whenever I would take him to the doctors they would say that he was having viral infection and it was very common for the kid who was in day care.
When he turned 4 he was so sick. A week later I took him to the doctor again and requested her to do blood work. But we never thought that it would be leukemia. It was an awful realization and my heart was in pain.
My daughter was 2 years old. She suffered a lot. I do not have any family or friends here. My husband broke down. He was not able to work. It was very hard for us to accept his disease. There was no one to wipe our tears, no one to give us his/her shoulders and no one to talk to us
Mohsin was very weak. His blood levels were very low. He was prepared to transfuse blood but he reacted against it. He was probably allergic to it. The doctor gave him intravenous anti allergic medicine and started his transfusion as it was very crucial to transfuse blood. He was crying with pains. He was not eating, drinking and sleeping. His intensive chromotherapy started which made him more sick. He was vomiting all the time, in constant pain, and was not eating or drinking anything.
It was too hard for us to see him in this condition. My two year old daughter got scared after looking her brother in pain all the times. She started vomiting and became sick too. Perhaps she was stressed.
Mohsin is still on Chemotherapy. He is 6 years old now. We all pray and wish for him to get better soon. My daughter is still worried and asks me all the time why I am going hospital with her brother. She gets upset most of the times because I have to leave her with her father to go with Mohsin for his treatment. She loves her brother too much and wants him to become better soon so we can spend more time with each other having fun.
Leading to my first diagnosis, I noticed I was very weak and pale. I went from running 6 miles daily in cross country practice to being completely out of breath just walking up the stairs at school. I noticed my face and lips were white as a ghost and I often got terrible headaches. I felt like I was going to pass out if standing for long periods of times. Leading up to my relapse, my symptoms were much different. Since we were monitoring my counts in blood draws every other month, we caught it there first when we noticed a huge drop in platelets. We re-checked blood counts again a month later and by that time I had noticed lots of bruising around my legs and arms.
My first treatment I sailed through with no complications, delays, or unexpected hospital admissions. It was a long road but nothing compared to my relapse treatment. It took me 5 months to reach remission this time and I got every complication possible. I had a blood clot, developed allergic reactions to several meds, ended up septic in the ICU twice, and spent the entirety of January, April, and June inpatient. Fortunately my month inpatient for my bone marrow transplant was fairly uneventful without major complications and I am recovering very well at home and will be 6 months post transplant this December.
I’ve had to take a year off from nursing school in order to receive transplant and wait for my counts to recover. This has been the hardest part for me, aside from the physical pain from treatments. I am not able to graduate with my class and am now a year behind in my studies.
Everyone has been affected by my diagnosis in different ways. I can only imagine how hard it is on my parents to watch their daughter go through such horrible treatments and suffer so much. For my sister, I know it has impacted her seeing the great nursing care I’ve received and she is currently in nursing school, as she and I have both been inspired by my nurses. My brother and I have a literally inseparable bond now. On June 1st he donated his marrow to me which has saved my life.
We are so grateful for all the love and support we have received during the past 6 years since I started my battle. Organizations such as The Gold Hope Project bring such joy and light to families going through this journey by giving them family pictures they can cherish forever.
Raylene has always been a fighter since the day she was born. She came into this world a bit early and ready to take our hearts…and that she did. Raylene can light up a room with her joyful smile and she just loves everything and everybody.
On Januray 13th 2017, Raylene was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoid Leukemia. This heartbreaking news has been hard on our entire family. As a parent you can never emotionally prepare for something like this. It feels like your world just crumbled down. Raylene has been such an inspiration for me. She has taught me to be a better person, to take it day by day and just enjoy every day. Throughout all her weekly chemo treatments, blood transfusions, steriods, meds and at home shots; Raylene has been so brave.There are many times when she is not feeling well but she continues to live like a kid, playing barbies and riding her bike inside the house. Our Leukemia warrior has always had a big heart and so much strength!
Sean is an amazing little boy who has come so far since his diagnosis 2.5 years ago. He has had to deal with extreme anxiety and being able to overcome that. He’s never once let his diagnosis and/or treatment slow him down. Despite missing so much time from school, he has managed to keep up with his studies and has not had to repeat the school year. He usually has a smile on his face and his laugh is infectious. He is kind, compassionate and never hesitates to help when he can. He enjoys all things Disney (especially Star Wars) and loves to read, draw and play video games.
Bianca is a happy little girl who loves life. She enjoys being outside and will talk to anyone she meets. Her favorite things are princesses. She wants her hair to grow long so she cal lool like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She enjoys riding her bike and playing with her sister. They are best friends.
Towards the end on October 2015 Bianca started showing signs of being sick. The doctor first believed she had the flu, but she was not eating and had a fever for over 8 days straight. I had taken her back to the doctors office several times then a chest x-ray was done to find that Bianca had a quarter stuck in her throat and it needed to be removed. Looking back, she was also showing signs at this time of having leukemia but a blood test was never done. After the quarter was removed Bianca hurt her knee and was complaining of knee pain which was very unusual for her as she is and has always been a very tough little girl. A x-ray was done of her knee and there was nothing there. I was told to just give her medicine for the pain.
About a week later she was screaming in pain and complaining that her elbow was hurt. I decided to take her to the urgent care. During the urgent care visit they did an x-ray of her elbow and again did not find anything wrong. The doctor then felt her arm and elbow to see if there was anything he could feel and there was nothing. He then asked if I minded if Bianca could have her blood drawn for a cbc which I agreed to. We left the urgent care after the blood draw.
About a week later Bianca’s father checked the results online and noticed that her counts were way off. Her pediatrician had us come back in to have repeat blood work done. We did this 3 times over 3 days. Then the pediatrician sent us to a specialist in DC to see Bianca. This is a visit I will never forget. They did more blood work when we got there and the doctor looked at her blood on a slide. I will never forget that moment when the doctor came back into the exam room and told me that my daughter had leukemia. We needed to get her to childrens to begin treatment immediately. On December 5, 2015 she was officially diagnosed with pre b cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The treatments at first were very difficult on all of us. Bianca initially had to be sedated to just go down to the surgical floor to have her spinal taps done. It was very overwheming for her. We are treated at Kaiser and it it very different. The surgical floor is set up for adults, not children. On the plus side to Bianca being treated at Kaiser is that she sees the same doctor and nurses for every visit. This has been our saving grace as they have become like family to us.
Now this is a way of life. Bianca has a routine when she goes to the clinic for treamtents. She handles being accessed like it is nothing. But it was a long road to get her to this point. She even now is able to go down to the surgical floor without being sedated and enjoys talking with the surgical staff before she gets a spinal tap done. She has a favorite nurse on the surgical floor that she will now walk back with to the procedure room all by herself.
She has come a long way and is an amazing strong little girl that I am very blessed to have as a daughter.
Brennen is fairly reserved until he gets familiar with someone. Then it’s hard to get him to stop talking. He enjoys playing all different kinds of sports with his brothers and friends.
On December 4, 2014, our world changed. Brennen was diagnosed with B-Cell A.L.L. It was a long process from his first symptoms of weakness and yellowing of skin. He required a couple blood transfusions and took almost 2 months of bone marrow biopsies and blood tests to diagnose. He has had various kids of chemotherapy, steroids, lumbar punctures, bone marrow biopsies, and lots of oral medications.
His treatment is 3 1/2 years so it wears on our family physically but also financially. During the first 10 months of treatment he had at least 1 appointment and the hospital was 2 1/2 hours each direction from our home. Many miles and hours have been spent in our van.
Brennen continues to live the life a fairly normal 9-year old boy. His siblings are so incredibly supportive and often go to treatments with him. I think the journey with Brennen has caused our entire family to be more empathetic to others who are going through difficulties.
