Daleigh (Day is his nickname most people call him) is a lively handsome and sweet little 5 year old. He loves everyone he meets and is the life of the room wherever he goes. He loved to camp, off-road with his mother and explore all aspects of life in general. Before his family found out, for a couple weeks, however, he lost this beautiful luster. He slowly was getting more and more tired, eating less, fevering, and losing color.

He went to the doctor on and the doctor really didn't like how pale he was and ordered some blood tests on a friday. The doctor figured anemia or an auto immune disease but was most concerned about his blood counts. Over the weekend when waiting for results, each symptom got worse. He was awake only a few hours a day and ate next to nothing. His mother called to the doctor on Monday and made him aware of what was going on. The doctor told his mother to go to the ER immediately.

So off to the ER the family went. The ER doctor knew something was wrong and toook blood, with a rush on results. The doctor decided to admit Day to the childrens hospital next door, into the oncology intensive care unit, where we were informed that day had a type of Acute Lymphoblastic Luekemia. He then had a lumbar puncture and spinal tap which revealed he was a precursor b and that the cancer has not spread to the central nervous system.

Daleigh, Mom and Michael spent 11 days in the hospital for a total of 3 platelet transfusions and 11-12 blood transfusions and for intense monitoring. They also found out that Daleigh's blood count levels were VERY low. His platelets were at 10 (normal is 150-450), hemoglobin level was a 2.5 (normal is 11-16) and ANC (the magical immunity number) was at 16 (normal is over 1000) which makes him neutropenic as well. The white blood cells were out of control and immature, hence Leukemic.

Daleigh lives with his Mom and her supportive boyfriend Michael. and now its 6 months of staying inside and healthy and most importantly, clean. There will be some speed bumps in his road to recovery, but they are conquering with a strong attitude, and most importantly, love. To keep up-to-date with Daleigh, please visit www.facebook.com/dmfleukemia

We had a 'family conference' to discuss a plan of action and his treatment, and this is what we found out: Daleigh does indeed had Precursor B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). He first has a 28 day "induction period." He's on steroids twice a day along with a concoction of 4 other medications day and night. He is also on a "no concentrated sweets diet" for the duration of the steroids as well. He's had 5-6 rounds of chemo therapy including 2 directly into his pine through lumbar puncture. for the next 6 months, he will be receiving chemo through a cathedar near his heart every week and a spinal chemo injection once a month. Hopefully after this 6 month period his Leukemia will go into recession and we will start a 2-3 year "maintentance period where he will be receiving chemo each month to make sure his bone marrow is no longer producing "blasts" (cancerous white blood cells).

Well, now we wait, pray, and learn. Daleigh's favorite thing to do was to be outside, camping and off-roading, (Check out pictures under the "Past Adventures" tab). Since he is not allowed to play around outdoors for 6 months... time is hard to kill. But he, and all close family members, are adjusting. Hopefully one day soon he'll be able to get back on his Honda CR 50 or tell mommy which way to turn exploring the outdoors in their FJ Cruiser.

email info@dmfleukemia.com