Johnny was five years old when he was diagnosed with B cell ALL.
His mom, Jessica, remembers August 5, 2020 as the day their world was flipped upside down. “Our son woke up completely yellow with blue lips,” she recalls. “He couldn’t walk and had a fever.”
They quickly took him to their local hospital but, before they could get there, Johnny started bleeding from his mouth. Once there, the hospital staff advised rushing Johnny to Children’s Hospital in London; they believed he had leukemia.
In London, Johnny was admitted to the Pediatric Critical Care Unit. He had gone septic, experiencing Strep A Toxic Shock blood infection. Until Johnny was stabilized, the doctors weren’t able to do a bone aspiration to confirm the suspected leukemia. Three days later, August 8th, the diagnosis was made: Johnny had cancer.
At that point, he was still too sick to start chemotherapy. That began a week later and, for the next four months, Johnny was in and out of the hospital with fevers, random lumps and pockets full of fluid throughout his muscles. He spent a total of 88 days as an in-patient during those few months.
“He’s had to have surgery on both of his knees to remove some of the pockets of fluid,” Jessica explains. ”He had multiple biopsies done on his legs, arms and skin to try and determine what these lumps and pockets of fluids were. He had to have COVID tests over and over again. He had ultrasounds and MRIs.”
Johnny is a little brother to Jace, and a big brother to Jett and Jade. In November, the day after his baby sister was born, Johnny had surgery to have his lymph node removed in hopes of finding out why he continued to have frequent fevers and have the random lumps continuously appear and disappear in his body.
In January, when Johnny received one of his chemo medications, he had an allergic reaction; his lungs swelled and he asphyxiated. Thankfully, the nurses and doctors were quick to give him another medication which reversed the side effects. Unfortunately, this reaction meant Johnny had to take a different route for his chemo. His new protocol included going to the hospital four times a week for two weeks and receiving needles in his legs.
Johnny has undergone so many things that a little boy his age should never have to. He has now reached long term maintenance but still continues to struggle with leg pain nightly.
“We have 2.5 years left of treatment and, when they say it takes a village, they weren’t kidding,” says Jessica. “We’ve been so grateful to have had help and support from Childcan. Since the moment we started talking with Renee, we’ve felt complete comfort and trust. Childcan has been there for us whenever we needed someone or something. Thank you so much Childcan for all you do to help make this journey less difficult.”