Elijah was 7 at the time and diagnosed with Autism, about 2 weeks before this he was complaining that his shoulder hurt. Elijah and his older brother were always running through the house playing tag you it!!! I just thought that maybe Michael was too rough and twisted his arm. After a few more days of Elijah complaining repeating and repeating "shoulder hurt" (remember he is Autistic and doesn't talk), we took him in to emergency to get an Xray. The Xray showed nothing, but looking in his throat they saw it was red and came back that he had Strep throat, SO they put him on antibiotics and sent us home with a sling for for his arm. He seemed to be better but kept asking for the sling saying "shoulder hurt".
He got so much attention with the sling we thought he was just playing for more. May 14Th 2007. I sent him to school after he ate his oatmeal like any other day and I got a call about 1 hour later, Elijah was in the nurses office at school - he was shaking - and has a low fever. I went to the school and picked him up. I was going to take him home and give him some Motrin and make him take a nap. He looked at me with big eyes and said Doctor .. Doctor ... my heart started to race, I knew there was something very very wrong I just knew. I didn't even call the pediatrician I called my husband's company, I'd never called for him in 15 years of him working there so they sent a foreman right out to get him to tell him to get to the emergency room. Something is wrong with Elijah!! I took him straight in to the pediatrician's. When we got there he started shaking again! The Dr didn't like what he was seeing and sent us to the emergency hospital across the street. It normally takes hours to be seen in this hospital but the Dr called ahead. When I got there they called Elijah Davis.
They took him right back. They told me he was anemic and had pneumonia. They said they were going to transport him to Childrens by ambulance. I rode with him as his eyes were like saucers as to try to understand what was happening to him.
They admitted us in the Children Hemonc Unit ??? OMG what does this mean and I cryed and prayed all night I remember screaming in my mind Oh God don't let this be real please don't let this be real, don't let them come in and say those words... The next morning the oncologist our new Dr came in and told us Elijah indeed has Acute lympoblastic leukemia. The first few weeks it's like you wish to wake up now that's it was just a really bad dream.
We are now in Maintenance and this year has been very scary and hard but we are getting through, together we are doing it and will continue to take one day at a time and face this Journey with a grateful heart.