Diagnosis Leukemia; April 21, 1987

My husband and I took Alex to Dr. W. today. Alex had two colds and a third cold was starting. He had become very clumsy and had a lot of bruises on his body. Alex's skin coloring had become very pale. He also was very tired and needed to be held all the time.

After Dr. W checked Alex he said he thought Alex's blood count would be very low maybe around 6 and it should be 12. The doctor could feel his liver and his spleen.

Dr W said Alex was very sick and within the next twenty four hours we were to take him to the hospital. Dr O would check him and do some blood tests.

We took Alex to the hospital not long after we saw Dr W. Once we were upstairs in the Children's ward, I had a hard time controlling my emotions. My husband, Charlie* said "What's wrong with you, Alex is just having a few tests." I didn't like to tell him but I feared the news would be bad. How could I say I fear he has Cancer? How could I his mother think that?

Between 6 and 6:30 pm, Dr O came to tell us the results of the blood test. Charlie had gone to the cafeteria. Dr. O said he would come back. Dr O came back about 30 minutes later. He told us the blood test showed that Alex has Leukemia. Charlie said "I don't think I heard you correctly." The doctor said "Your son has Leukemia." I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I went numb and felt like I had floated to the ceiling. I was now looking down at myself, Charlie and the doctor.

At nine o'clock the nurses put an I.V. into Alex's arm. It took four tries before the nurses were able to get the needle in okay.

It was a terrible night, Alex woke up about every hour screaming. He was having nightmares about being poked by the nurses.

Dr. O told us Alex would be transferred to Children's Hospital tomorrow and they would do some more tests. A bone marrow test would confirm that Alex has Leukemia and would also tell the strain of Leukemia.

Dr. O said Leukemia has a 90% chance of being cured.

* the name has been changed

Diagnosis Leukemia; 1987

My son Alex was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was 3 years old. He was diagnosed in 1987. I kept a journal during that time, I would like to share those entries with you. If I can help one person going through the heartache of having a child diagnosed with Leukemia, then it is worth it.

My journal entries will be titled Diagnosis: Leukemia and the date of the journal entry.