Burkitt's Lymphoma
Dalton was a healthy little 4-year-old we thought!! On December 13th 2005 we noticed that he had a swollen spot on the left side of his jaw. So I took him to the dentist as soon as I could get in which was the following Monday and he said that Dalton had two teeth that were abscessed and needed to come out. He went home on 10 days of antibiotics. Well it was time for them to end and Dalton's jaw kept getting bigger and bigger so I called back to the dentist office and they just wanted to call him in some more antibiotics and that’s when I got a little aggravated and said if 10 days hasn't worked why would 17? So I said no we are not doing that, we will take him to our family doctor. So, we did and he said “OH MY Gosh!” He said he needs a different antibiotic and if he gets a fever go to the ER ASAP! So by this time it is Friday before Christmas, and we really wanted him better by Christmas day. Well we had to wake him up Christmas morning. He walked in the living room, looked at the stuff and turned around and went back to bed. I said there is something bad wrong here so we checked him out and yes he had fever. So we loaded him up and went to the ER on Christmas Day! They said we are admitting him and we are calling Oral Surgereon in. So they did and they did surgery that day. They were not pleased with the results so they sent us to Children's Hospital by Ambulance not knowing what was wrong with my child. When I think about Children’s Hospital I think all those kids have Cancer! So we were scared to death. On January 13th Dalton was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma! That scared us to death, he started treatment on Friday and on Monday Chad woke me up at 3:00 a.m. and said look at his jaw. It is going down already. Also by this time not only was this cancer in his jaw it was also in his bone marrow, spinal fluid, kidneys and pelvic area! He was a stage 4 Cancer patient. By April we are proud to say Dalton was CANCER FREE and remains that way today. He finished treatment over a year ago and is doing great today. During this time Dalton was an inpatient for 111 days and received over 20 blood transfusions and 10 platelet transfusions, he had to get a feeding tube because he was nothing but skin and bones. He quit eating on us and that was our only option and I would do it again tomorrow if I had too. He had the greatest nurses, doctors and nurse practitioners ever. They are what got us through this, with the help of God. They are part of our family now. We always felt welcome at Children's. Chad stayed at home most of the time because we also had an 18-month-old at the time and we wanted one to be with him. So I was out of work for 8 months. Thanks for reading Dalton's story. Children’s means the world to me and my husband. They make our family complete. We have learned several things from our experience and will live life for today not tomorrow, because we don't know what tomorrow has in store for us. SO if there is one thing I can tell you today that would be live for today—we are not promised tomorrow!!!!!
