On Friday, September 16th, my husband called me at work at 7:30am and said Mateo's got a fever you need to come home and watch him (husband had just started a new job so it was my turn to stay home with sick kids). Anyway, Mateo ran a fever of 100-103 all weekend. Would come down with Tylenol, etc. Said his throat hurt, didn't eat much. Took him to ped (urgent care, not our regular) on Monday. Said sounded like strep. Prescribed Amoxicillin, took a culture. I called on Wednesday Sept 21st to see if the culture was in fact strep (Mateo had not been to school or me to work since the 16th). Doctor said not strep, come in and we'll do blood work and x-ray. As soon as the blood work came back the ped came in and said, "he's a very sick little boy, you need to go to Sunset (main Kaiser hospital) his white, red and hemoglobin counts are dangerously low." I knew right then that the doctor was worried about it being leukemia. Got to the hospital at 11pm. They started an IV, poor Mateo was so scared and just crying. I have never felt so helpless in my life. Took a BMA on Friday to determine that it was leukemia since his blood work didn't present in a standard leukemia manner. Until the BMA they were thinking aplastic anemia. I can't even remember what the doctor said after he said that Mateo had leukemia, I just sat there crying, in shock. Mateo ended being inpatient for 10 days.
Sandi, mom to Tino age 11, Tony age 9, Mateo age 7 dx pre T cell ALL 9/23/05. CCG 1991