"We know we'll be able to handle whatever comes."Alijah's Mom
Meet Alijah:
Watching your child grow and move forward through developmental milestones – learning to sit, to crawl, to take the first tottering step – what a joyful process for a parent! How frightening, then, to watch your child suddenly seem to “grow backwards.” That is what Kyle and Jamekka experienced when in 2005, shortly before Thanksgiving, their two year old son Alijah stopped walking.
Going Backwards from Milestones
“He just started crawling again,” recalls Jamekka. “He would go for four or five days crawling with his foot up in the air like it was hurting. Then he’d walk for a few days, then go back to crawling. Sometimes his right ankle hurt, sometimes his left, sometimes it was his wrist. We thought something might have happened at daycare . . .” but that turned out not to be so.
Soon, Alijah started running a high fever at night and Jamekka took her son to the family’s regular pediatrician. After repeated visits, with tests and x-rays coming back negative, the pediatrician referred Alijah to a rheumatologist, suspecting his mysterious pains might be a sign of rheumatoid arthritis. Once again scans and tests showed no problems. Alijah definitely did not have RA. However, the rheumatologist thought Alijah should be seen by a hematologist. She was concerned that a blood disorder might be causing his symptoms. She referred the family to Dr. Joseph Neglia, section chief of pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. The next day, January 20, 2006, Dr. Neglia diagnosed Alijah with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) after performing a bone marrow biopsy and finding leukemia cells in his marrow.
A Cancer Diagnosis With A Good Prognosis
Coincidentally, Alijah’s cousin was in University hospital at the same time, being treated for a heart problem; so, many of Alijah’s relatives were present when Alijah was diagnosed. Dr. Neglia broke the news to a crowd of parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, who have been Alijah’s support group and cheering section since that day. He told them that Alijah was lucky to this extent: though it was once almost always fatal, ALL is now a very treatable disease. Thanks to research like that sponsored by Children's Cancer Research Fund, today more than 80 percent of children with ALL are cured.
Dr. Neglia started Alijah’s treatment immediately. The medical team inserted a “port” in his chest through which he would receive chemotherapy drugs. A physical therapist coached Kyle and Jamekka about ways to get Alijah walking again. The family began the long journey, marked by terrors and triumphs, that is cancer treatment.
Life After Cancer Should be Pretty Simple
Today, Alijah is still being treated for leukemia. He has about a year of therapy to go. The little boy who once seemed to be growing backwards is now quite an advanced four-year-old. For Alijah, infusions and transfusions are facts of life. The steroid medication he takes five days a month can make him irritable and emotional but on most days you can’t tell he’s not completely healthy boy – a high-spirited one with a precocious interest in golf! “If there’s a good thing in all of this,” says Jamekka, “it’s watching Alijah grow up. He is a brave kid and we admire him so much. He’s only four-years- old, yet he knows how to put his own medicine in his port! We figure the rest of our life is pretty simple. When we look at what Alijah has done and how he has stood up to this we know that we’ll be able to handle whatever comes.”
-http://www.childrenscancer.org/stories-of-hope/kids-stories/alijah.html
GO Alijah!
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