Hello to all my new friends at LLS!
My name is Ace and I am 7 years old. On November 9, 2012 when I was just 4 ½, I was diagnosed with leukemia. In a way I was glad to finally have an answer to why I didn’t feel well. My parents had been worried about me for months. I had gone to the ER with my dad for ankle pain in August and the doctor there didn’t think I needed to check labs because little kids like me hurt themselves like this all the time. I visited our regular pediatrician several times with infections and other non-specific symptoms. I would scream out in the middle of the night that my legs hurt. Finally around Halloween I could barely make it to walk around. I stayed home from school for a little while and the doctor thought I might have a sinus infection. Then on that final day, I was at school and screaming out for my parents. I got picked up immediately and taken to a different pediatrician in Santa Monica. Since we had just moved from Orange County to Los Angeles in September, this was my first time seeing this pediatrician, Dr. Lisa Stern.
As it turned out, Dr. Stern had completed a pediatric fellowship in hematology and oncology so she felt my liver and took my history and immediately sent me with my mom to have labs drawn at a UCLA facility. That very night only a few hours later, my mom and I drove over to the ER at Mattel Children’s hospital to be admitted for my leukemia diagnosis. My dad was traveling in London and got on the first plane back to be with me. I really have to thank Dr. Stern. I was in so much pain and discomfort. Little did I know I had such a serious health disorder and that I would be in for a lot more discomfort before I felt any better! But, I was on the road to treatment and recovery.
My treatment response was a little slow so I was classified high standard risk, but I am very lucky I have two sisters and a big brother who all came to see me in the hospital at various times during my stays. My parents stayed with me at the hospital and I ended up with the biggest collection of Bionicles outside of the Lego store! I was neutropenic often so our entire house was bathed in bleach and hand sanitizer! My parents bought a twin bed just for me and put it in their room so they could monitor my temperature and my pain during the nights. I played a lot of Lego video games on our Wii U pretty much every day! That part I liked a lot. My dad’s stepfather even came out to live with us for 5 months along with our live-in nanny to help take care of me and the other kids since the demands of my health required A LOT of extra attention. I lost my hair and was weak most of the time, but I still managed to have a great time with my family and even the nurses at the clinic. Now I love going to see everyone even though I still feel terrible for several days after each chemo treatment. I miss about 5 days of school each month. In the photos you can see me on my first day in the hospital as I was going for my first lumbar puncture and on the bottom is a photo of me getting ready for my very last scheduled lumbar puncture which just happened in December. On March 21, 2016 I will turn 8 and we are going to have a really big party since my treatment protocol ends February 22nd so I won’t have to take all that chemo anymore! I feel very lucky to be alive and healthy. Now I can really enjoy just being a kid and a proud cancer survivor!
