
Help Christopher fight Leukemia
Donation protected
Christopher celebrated New Year's Day 2019 expecting another fun filled year of camping with his boy scout troop, volunteering with the cub scouts, listening to his dad's antics about working as a paramedic, learning in his homeschool groups, and playing with his four siblings. He was super excited to start learning to build and code robots with the local 4-H robotics team.
We were all concerned the next day when he began running a high fever and complaining of leg pain, but we were totally shocked when just fifteen days later he was unable to get up and walk across the room on his own power. It was in the ER that 16th of January that we were told what no parent ever wants to hear: "Your child has cancer." High Risk Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia to be exact. We were admitted to the hospital for the next ten days. Those days were a whirlwind of tests, procedures, a surgery, chemo, medications and new rules. Even in the midst of all this Chris kept us and the hospital staff laughing with his antics. He decided his IV pumps were his "electronic pets" and named them all! When we went into the hospital we knew practically nothing of Leukemia and left with more information than we could process. The most important of what we learned is his prognosis is good. Approximately 85% of all children with his diagnosis are cured!
Since cancer entered our lives, everything. Chris is allowed to do is based on a magic number that tells us how his immune system is functioning. Every week these numbers tell us if he can see friends, go to the movies, go to the park etc. Just as we were beginning to calm and adjust to our new life, cancer threw us another blow. The genetic testing of Chris's cancer cells revealed a rare mutation called near haploid. This makes the cancer harder to cure, the chances of relapse greater, and the cure rates drop to about 54%. This bumps him up into the highest risk category amd makes him much more likely to need a bone marrow transplant. We are in for a long road, but Chris is an amazingly strong person. His attitude toward the whole thing is, "Do or do not, there is no try. I WILL prevail."
Organizer
Julianna Hulsey
Organizer
Terrell, TX