My Story

March 12, 2013 will always be a day to remember in our family. It was the day we heard the words "your daughter has cancer". On March 1, I noticed Presley appeared pale and had a few bruises that were not normal, or associated with falling. I knew something was different so I googled anemic and leukemia, those were the two diagnosis I found for her symptoms. Of course I figured it was just anemia. I then began giving Presley any food that was high in iron. On March 9, Presley threw up and I was just thinking it was the flu, Crew (our little 18 month old) was also not feeling too good. Paul had been home for the weekend, and he also noticed on Saturday night and wondered why her coloring was not the best. Presley was weak and by Monday I couldn't keep much food or liquid down her. I called Paul and he agreed that I better take her in to see the doctor. I'm sure they were going to tell me it was just virus and there was not much they could do, but they wanted to test her blood for iron so I wouldn't have to force iron down her anymore. We scheduled a 10:30 am appointment in Cedar City with a Pediatrician that we had never been to before. The doctor confirmed she had the "flu", but I kept inquiring to know what her iron levels were. The doctor drew some blood with a finger prick, 15 min later the doctor came in and I knew something was not right. Of course they were not sure about what was going on but her platelets were low and her white  blood cells were elevated and she was very dehydrated. The doctors wanted to get an I.V. started started to get fluids in her and to do further blood work. We were sent to an infusion clinic to get an I.V. and a bag of fluids. At about 4pm we got home thinking we would go get more fluids in the morning. The main doctor from the office attempted to reach me by phone three times and I was not around my phone. Just knowing that he called me at about 5:30pm and three different attempts was a sign something wasn't right. Doctor Nielson informed me that  they are suspecting something going on in her blood, like Leukemia, that we were to be at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City by 8am in the morning. We had about 30 minutes to pack and get on the road, with Mom, Dad, Crew and all! We had to stop by Cedar City hospital to get more blood work done before we headed to Salt Lake. By this time Presley was no longer tolerating being "poked" for blood work. We got to PCMC at about 2am, and checked in. It was a long night holding a scared baby and being scared myself. I don't think I slept at all that night. The next morning we met Doctor Fluchel who gave us the diagnosis. Presley age 3 and 3 months was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. They still needed to do more testing and a Bone Marrow Biopsy to know what type of Leukemia cells she had. On Tuesday March 12 in the afternoon, Presley was officially diagnosed with Pre-B A.L.L (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia).