The Journey Begins

We had been decorating the house with hearts and filling boxes with candy. On Tuesday, February 12, Eli woke up in the middle of the night with intense arm pain. Unrelenting, the pain led to a doctor visit on Valentine’s Day, an ER trip with x-rays, and an ortho referral. Since growing bones still have so much cartilage, it was not definitive but inferred that a possible fracture existed at the tip of his radius.

His body was trying to tell us something.

Fever came and grew, resulting in further lab work, and by Friday evening, Eli was admitted for a bone infection in his elbow. An MRI under sedation and subsequent surgery targeted and cleared the site. Antibiotics were administered, blood counts were great, and we were discharged the following Monday with a clean bill of health and a lot of yucky medicine to take.

One week had passed. There was still something there.

Spirits were high, prescriptions were filled, and our daily routine resumed. Little did we know Eli’s lab results were being reviewed, blood counts rechecked, and cultures more closely examined. Our phones began ringing at lunchtime on Wednesday, February 21 to go the Emergency Room of Children’s Dallas because an abnormality of concern had been found. Another admission. Another sedation. Spinal tap. Bone marrow biopsies. On Thursday, Eli was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia).

His body had been trying to tell us something.

We will never know exactly when Eli’s body became its own enemy. But now Eli has begun the fight of his life. For his life. And we will fight beside him.