Brayden Gildea's Fight Against Leukemia
Donation protected
On Thursday May 7, 2020, just a week before his 14th birthday, Brayden's life changed in a way that we could never have anticipated. Here is his story...
At the beginning of March, Brayden started complaining of left knee pain from what he thought was an injury he sustained during phy-ed. This pain worried him as baseball season was right around the corner and he wasn't quite sure how he was going to be able to play ball. It hurt to walk and was impossible to kneel down. It seemed that no matter what he tried the pain would not go away. With time, the pain subsided; however, the pain then went into his right knee. After a couple of weeks of wearing a knee brace and babying the knee, we decided to take him to the doctor. She suggested taking Advil and icing it daily, and if the pain didn't get better within 10 days to call and come back in and they would run additional testing.
The pain would come and go; however, as days went on Brayden continued to experience knee pain, leg pain and multiple nose bleeds. He was always tired, and he didn't have much of an appetite. Two days later, he started complaining about a pain in his ear, and he was running a temperature so I told him that it was time to go to the doctor. After fighting with him for a while, he knew that I wasn't going to change my mind. I called the clinic to schedule and appointment, but with Covid-19, we were told just to bring him into Urgent Care.
Like moms do, I insisted that he shower before going to the doctor, and he whined and complained but eventually he got up and was going to take a shower. All of a sudden, I heard a loud thump, and shortly after that a lot of moaning and groaning. Brayden had passed out, he woke up on the bathroom floor not knowing what had happened - although one thing he did know was that he was in a lot of pain because he injured his back when he fainted. No time for a shower, I knew there was something wrong and that we needed to get to the clinic immediately. It took nearly 45 minutes to get him up and out the door, he was in a terrible amount of pain. I managed to get him to Urgent Care, however with Covid, we had to be screened (both he & I) before getting into see the doctor.
The doctor came into the room, looked in his ears and determined he had an ear infection, and started writing out a prescription. I insisted further testing to be done so we could figure this out. Multiple labs and x-rays were ordered and done. After getting the labs back, the doctor came into the room and said that Brayden was going to be brought to Children's by ambulance because his white blood cell count was extremely low. Brayden was worried as he had never been in an ambulance. We got to Children's in Minneapolis around 10:00 p.m. where he was seen in the Emergency Department, and after several hours he was admitted into the hospital. It was a like a revolving door - nurses, doctors, social workers, lab techs, etc.
After hours and hours of waiting and worrying, we received the confirmed diagnosis - leukemia. You never expect to hear that your 13-year-old son has cancer running through his blood. How is that even possible? And just two short hours after receiving the news, Brayden was headed into surgery for a bone marrow biopsy/aspiration, lumbar puncture and a port placement.
Brayden's birthday is Friday, May 15. Instead of having a birthday party and celebrating his 14th birthday with family and friends, Brayden will be going through chemotherapy.
At the beginning of March, Brayden started complaining of left knee pain from what he thought was an injury he sustained during phy-ed. This pain worried him as baseball season was right around the corner and he wasn't quite sure how he was going to be able to play ball. It hurt to walk and was impossible to kneel down. It seemed that no matter what he tried the pain would not go away. With time, the pain subsided; however, the pain then went into his right knee. After a couple of weeks of wearing a knee brace and babying the knee, we decided to take him to the doctor. She suggested taking Advil and icing it daily, and if the pain didn't get better within 10 days to call and come back in and they would run additional testing.
The pain would come and go; however, as days went on Brayden continued to experience knee pain, leg pain and multiple nose bleeds. He was always tired, and he didn't have much of an appetite. Two days later, he started complaining about a pain in his ear, and he was running a temperature so I told him that it was time to go to the doctor. After fighting with him for a while, he knew that I wasn't going to change my mind. I called the clinic to schedule and appointment, but with Covid-19, we were told just to bring him into Urgent Care.
Like moms do, I insisted that he shower before going to the doctor, and he whined and complained but eventually he got up and was going to take a shower. All of a sudden, I heard a loud thump, and shortly after that a lot of moaning and groaning. Brayden had passed out, he woke up on the bathroom floor not knowing what had happened - although one thing he did know was that he was in a lot of pain because he injured his back when he fainted. No time for a shower, I knew there was something wrong and that we needed to get to the clinic immediately. It took nearly 45 minutes to get him up and out the door, he was in a terrible amount of pain. I managed to get him to Urgent Care, however with Covid, we had to be screened (both he & I) before getting into see the doctor.
The doctor came into the room, looked in his ears and determined he had an ear infection, and started writing out a prescription. I insisted further testing to be done so we could figure this out. Multiple labs and x-rays were ordered and done. After getting the labs back, the doctor came into the room and said that Brayden was going to be brought to Children's by ambulance because his white blood cell count was extremely low. Brayden was worried as he had never been in an ambulance. We got to Children's in Minneapolis around 10:00 p.m. where he was seen in the Emergency Department, and after several hours he was admitted into the hospital. It was a like a revolving door - nurses, doctors, social workers, lab techs, etc.
After hours and hours of waiting and worrying, we received the confirmed diagnosis - leukemia. You never expect to hear that your 13-year-old son has cancer running through his blood. How is that even possible? And just two short hours after receiving the news, Brayden was headed into surgery for a bone marrow biopsy/aspiration, lumbar puncture and a port placement.
Brayden's birthday is Friday, May 15. Instead of having a birthday party and celebrating his 14th birthday with family and friends, Brayden will be going through chemotherapy.
Organizer and beneficiary
Kelly Hayes
Organizer
Glencoe, MN
Kari Gildea
Beneficiary