Joshua was a very happy 6-year-old, He graduated kindergarten in May of 2019, singing and dancing to awesome zoo songs! He did quite a performance and we were so proud of him.
After school ended, he started to look different. He was getting tired more than usual, complaining about leg pains, and his skin looked very pale.
The day we took him to his pediatrician is the day we will never forget! He got poked in his finger and when the doctor came in the room she looked kind of worried, and said he was very anemic. So she sent us to Arkansas Children’s Northwest right away to get a blood exam. I can say he was very brave by letting the nurses stick the needle in his vein to get the blood. After that they let us go home.
We went to eat and on our way back home I received a call from the hospital saying that we needed to bring Joshua back as soon as we could. We then rushed back and after getting him into a room, the APRN brought us back into another room. Worst feeling ever! She started talking but the only thing I can remember are the words “We think he has leukemia”.
That was the worst day of our lives.
Then they rushed him to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital In Little Rock (3 hours away) and immediately tested him. The doctors then returned with the bad results saying he has “the good cancer”…Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a very common cancer in kids. ALL is very treatable and 90% of the kids survive after 2-3 years of treatments. The next day he got a port installed under his skin and started treatment right away.
We have struggled a lot, he used to be very scared all the time, but he maintained himself strong and he is all good with pokes and procedures now but this all has been very traumatic for our entire family.
Hope session by Terra Fondriest Photography | Instagram