As some of our closest family and friends know, our 4 year son Liam, has been battling with random health issues off and on for a while.

When Liam was about 2 years old, a large swollen lymph node was found by us on his neck. This was brought up several times during pediatric appointments with his primary physician and was dismissed multiple times over the span of 2, almost 3, years. The request for bloodwork to be done was denied a handful of times and deemed unnecessary as his pediatrician stated that in younger kids swollen lymph nodes are not uncommon. He stated that it is completely normal for a child to get an illness, have the lymph node swell up, and stay swollen/not return to normal size again and remand enlarged for the child’s life. Finally after multiple requests made by me, his mom, the pediatrician agreed to send in a request to do bloodwork. Surprisingly, it came back normal.

Off and on over the years Liam battled with random confusing health issues while still having this enlarged lymph node. He would spike random fevers, throw up and be fine less than 24 hours later. He also would have night sweats and go through periodic episodes of losing his appetite. All were brought up during pediatric appointments and all were dismissed as typical growing patterns or habits for young children his age.

Fast forward to August of 2024; Liam is 4 years old now. After bringing up his swollen lymph node in his neck as a concern once again, his pediatrician finally decided to give us an ENT referral to set our mind at ease. At this point we had seen 2 different pediatricians at the same office and both had stated that the lymph node seemed normal, despite being enlarged, and did not indicate cancer due to the fact it was not solid and was palpable.

Despite our better judgement we did not schedule the ENT appointment right away and chose to believe Liam’s doctors that his swollen lymph node was “normal” even though I had a gut feeling it was not.

In February of this year, Liam experienced random episodes of a stiff neck that was extremely painful and prevented him from moving his neck around in any direction at all. It affected his way of life greatly. These episodes would last several days, during which he would refuse to move from the couch. The happy, energetic, funny, sweet, bubbly kid that we had known and love turned into a child who wasn’t able to enjoy any of his usual activities and became distraught and moody. After making an appointment with his pediatrician, together we deemed it best to take him to Children Hospital’s ER to make sure it wasn’t meningitis. After several hours there, it was concluded that he had Torticollis and we were sent home with instructions to give Tylenol when needed and seek possible physical therapy should these flare ups continue.

We decided then to schedule an ENT appointment with the referral we had received the previous August 2024 as we had assumed that the lymph node was somehow related to the Torticollis diagnosis. The ENT appointment was for April 22, 2025.

Before the ENT appointment, and just 2 weeks after Liam’s Torticollis diagnosis, Liam started complaining of extreme pain in his right femur and hip. He would again get this leg/hip pain at sporadic times and would last anywhere from a few days to a week at a time. During these painful episodes, he was almost completely immobile, when not medicated, due to pain despite our best to try and manage it at home with Tylenol and ibuprofen. The pain was so much that it would wake him up throughout the night. Along with these spurts of leg/hip pain, he also experienced a decrease in appetite, slight weight loss, fatigue, night sweats and became extremely moody once again when he was once such a loving, crazy, energetic and sweet boy.

Fast forward a month and a half past the Torticollis diagnosis, the ENT appointment finally rolls around. During the ENT visit, we were assured that the lymph node was one of the “smaller lymph nodes that they had seen and did not seem to indicate anything cancerous as it was soft and palpable” as the diagnosis of cancer was brought up as a concern by me to every doctor we talked to. Despite the reassurance of the ENT doctor, a biopsy of the lymph node was requested by us just to completely rule out cancer and put everyone’s mind at ease. (Again, this appointment was the 22nd of April 2025.)

After 2 months of random flair ups of this leg/hip pain, an ENT appointment and a Torticollis diagnoses later, we made another appointment with his pediatrician. As his quality of life was deteriorating due to the pain completely taking over some days. This was April 30, 2025.

We discussed at his appointment everything leading up to this point and finally, a different pediatrician within the same office listened to our concerns after being ignored and “reassured” he was fine by multiple other doctors. And specifically being told that didn’t have cancer even though multiple signs pointed to it. (We will forever be grateful for Rhonda for taking our concerns seriously.)

This pediatrician seemed just as concerned as us and sent us over stat for a hip, femur and pelvic x-ray along with a full work up of bloodwork once again. All of that was completed the same day, April 30th of 2025.

The results of the x-rays came back 2 hours later and were clear but his bloodwork was a concerning mess. Almost everything was concerningly low including Liam’s red and white blood cell counts and his hemoglobin just to name a few. It showed that he was dangerously anemic due to his bone marrow not functioning properly and we got a phone call at 6:00 that same night from the pediatrician. She said that she had talked to multiple Children’s Hospital’s and doctors who all concluded that the likely hood of cancer was high and we needed to leave our home in Colorado Springs and drive to the Children’s Hospital in Aurora. We packed him and his one year old sister up and made the drive up there that night.

After arriving at the hospital and getting checked in along with a lot more bloodwork done, it was concluded that Liam had virtually no immune system, was extremely anemic and his bone marrow was not working properly. We were admitted right then and taken straight back to a room to get him blood transfusions to start getting his numbers back up.

During his transfusions, a few more labs were done and the conclusion was drawn that Liam did in fact have cancer, and was diagnosed with Leukemia. A bone marrow biopsy was performed May 1st of 2025 to determine what type of leukemia it is and we are currently awaiting those results.

During this time, Liam, his father, his one year old sister, and myself (his mother) have been staying at Children’s Hospital in Aurora waiting to receive the bone marrow results to determine the type of Leukemia that he has, so that we can get a game plan on how to treat it and what treatment will look like for him. Our whole world has been turned upside down and the people it affected most are Liam and his baby sister.

They’re best friends and have always been attached at the hip since she was born. He’s such an amazing big brother! It’s taken a toll on his sister to see her big brother in so much pain and it pains Liam to not be able to run around and play with her like he wants to and used to. Not to mention the absolute heartbreak not only us as his parents feel, but his whole family feels.

We’re asking for help during this extremely difficult time to try and give us some sort of financial stability as we do not have health insurance and we will be in the hospital for the foreseeable future getting tests and treatment done. Liam’s father is at risk of losing his job (our only source of income as I am a stay at home mom who was enrolled for this fall at UCCS in their nursing intent program with the intention of becoming a labor and delivery nurse.) And Liam was set to start his first ever year of school this fall as a Kindergartner. All of these plans have come crumbling down around us. We are unsure of what our future looks like as we will have to stay at the hospital for extended periods with Liam and his one year old sister, and then travel back and forth from Colorado Springs, where we live, to Aurora once we get treatment figured out.

Liam was diagnosed with Leukemia 6 days before his 5th birthday (diagnosed May 1st, 2025 and his birthday is May 7th.) And was hospitalized 3 days before his birthday party.

My family is grateful if you’ve made it this far in our story, even if you can’t donate, sharing our story still helps more people see it. This is in the hopes of not only helping us, but helping someone out there push to take further actions when physicians don’t take your concerns seriously and to trust your gut feeling when you feel something is off, especially when your kids are involved.

❤️Mom, Dad and Sissy love you SO much boogy. You’re the strongest boy we know and we know you’ve got this and will be with you every step of the way! ❤️