In late Sept. early Oct. of 03 David jumped down from a relatively high height and landed on his heels. He limped on and off from this incident for about a week but otherwise did not complain about it so I took him to his ped. who x-rayed him and pronounced him fine.
This on and off limping, however, did not resolve. I don't recall how many times I took him to our regular ped. before we were referred to an orthopedist. Things they were considering were Legg-Calve Perthes disease, small fracture, Lyme disease and then juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. They did no blood work on him until Dec. 19th. Meanwhile he worsened in his limping and could not run normally at all. This was so alarming to me since he was an active 5 year old boy.
His initial blood work did not show any blasts and his ANC was 1000. His HGB was 12.8 and platelets were 222. I remember the ortho. calling me to say that cancer could be ruled out since his blood work was so normal. I had no idea they were even considering cancer as a possibility so this was quite upsetting. We were then referred to a rheumatologist for further evaluation - not scheduled until the 7th of Jan. The day after Christmas we had him back into our regular ped because he was complaining that his heart hurt (maybe it was his sternum). Anyway, they x-rayed him again and suggested that it might just be growing pains.
After his next appointment, the rheumatologist ordered a bone scan and repeat blood work for the 8th of Jan. On the 9th in the a.m. we got a call from her saying that we needed to go to the hospital in Madison immediately. His ANC was now 420, HGB 11 and platelets 153. His white count had actually dropped from 5.2 to 3.9 so at least that was good news as far as risk assignment is concerned. Of course I was terrified and I can vividly recall turning around to look at my precious little boy sitting in the back seat with a little smile on his face. At the hospital - 2 hours away - they did repeat blood work and then said they needed to do a bone marrow aspiration. I remember the doctor returning to say "There's no easy way to tell you this. David has leukemia."
I still have trouble figuring out why he had bone pain for so long before anything else. He never had fevers, bruising, petechia, or anything else that would have clued us in. He was pale, but it was winter and he's a redhead. He had pink eye a week prior to dx but nothing else but the limping and pains. Anyway, that's his story. Sorry it's so long.
Jane, mom to David(7) dx 1-04, pre B ALL standard risk, LTM 9-04, CCG 1991 standard arm