Support Jesse Lee's Fight Against Leukemia

As some of you know, the Lee Family is going through a hard time. Their son Jesse was diagnosed with leukemia. This has been a huge hit on the family, not only emotionally but also financially. If you know this family, they are the kind of people that will always lend a hand but won’t ever ask for help. Let’s make sure they don’t have to ask. Below are words Anna posted to tell more about their story.

“On August 19th, our pediatrician called us and told us he had bad news. He told us that Jesse had leukemia and we needed to go to the Sutter hospital in Sacramento immediately. We quickly made arrangements for our other 3 kids, and Jason packed up a few days' worth of clothes. I left work and picked him and Jesse up. We made it to the hospital and were admitted to the PICU.

The first days are really just a blur: lots of bloodwork, tests, moving rooms, so many different faces, and people talking to us. We learned that Jesse has T-Cell ALL or T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It is very treatable and has a survival rate of 75%. He received his first dose of chemo via his spine, or intrathecally. He started on steroids the day we got here, and they warned us it could change his personality, and it has. We are watching our normally quiet and smiley boy become angry, frustrated, and aggressive. It’s so heartbreaking to watch and see the confusion on his face at times. We slowly settled into and got used to all of the blood draws, being attached to monitors and IVs. He’s had good days and bad days since we’ve been here. We’ve had lots of family and friends come see us, check on us, and help us in so many ways that we could never thank them enough.

We have a long road ahead of us. Three years is what they have told us. We are currently in the first phase of treatment, induction. This phase lasts 28 days, and we are on day 12. Our next phase is consolidation and will last between 6-9 months, followed by maintenance for the remainder of his 3 years. There will be lots of trips to Sacramento for weekly treatments and monitoring.

We are being told that we may be able to go home on Tuesday the 3rd, if Jesse keeps taking his steroids orally and continues to intake his fluids without the IV. This is such good news for us, and it’s terrifying all at the same time. Here in the hospital, we have known help was just a button away, and we are in a clean environment. When we go home, we have to resume our lives all the while keeping Jesse, who is neutropenic, safe from infections and illness. The hospital has given us all the tools and lessons on how to care for him at home.

Jesse is such a resilient and strong little boy. Despite going through so much, he still smiles and laughs and plays. We jokingly say he is the worst sick baby ever because he doesn’t seem “sick” in the sense we are so used to seeing. He has down times when he just wants to lay on your chest or in his bed alone, but when he’s feeling good, he’s all over the place.

As we move forward with him in the journey, we look forward to the day we can say our son is cancer-free and beat leukemia. Until that time comes, we will be right by his side and helping him fight this.”

The family is now home but still fighting.

Jesse gets chemo on Thursdays, so we’d like to ask all of our friends and family to wear either gold (childhood cancer awareness) or orange (leukemia awareness) on Thursdays.

Thank you for helping this amazing family.

#jesseswarriors