Name: Lea
Diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Three-year-old Lea, with her dark brown eyes and rosebud lips, loves putting together puzzles. Not too long ago, Lea's mother, Joyce, had her own puzzle to solve: What was causing the usually active toddler to lose her energy and run high fevers? A trip to the doctor had yielded a diagnosis of an ear infection. He prescribed antibiotics, but they did nothing to alleviate Lea's symptoms. She lost her appetite and began losing weight. And then one afternoon, to her mother's horror, Lea passed out. Joyce rushed her little girl to the local emergency room, where a doctor on staff thought he had figured out the puzzle.
Lea's symptoms, he believed, were characteristic of leukemia. He ordered blood work, and once he received the results, he referred the family to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The drive to St. Jude, which only took an hour and half, seemed like a lifetime for Joyce. "My first thought was 'my child has cancer, she's going to die,'" she said.
At St. Jude:
Lea arrived at St. Jude a very sick little girl and our doctors confirmed her diagnosis as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. Lea was immediately put on a two-year treatment protocol. After spending six weeks inpatient at the hospital, Lea and her mother are now back home with their family. They return to St. Jude twice a week for Lea's chemotherapy treatments. Joyce realized immediately that St. Jude was the best place for Lea to receive treatment. "Everybody was nice," she said. "I knew right away I was in a good place, in the place Lea was supposed to be." She is grateful for the donors who help support the lifesaving research that happens every day at St. Jude.
When she first learned of Lea's diagnosis, Joyce, a single mother with three children, wondered how she would pay for Lea's treatment. When she learned she would never receive a bill, it was a relief because she could focus on what was important: Lea's health. "She's getting back to her old self," Joyce said. "Because of St. Jude, Lea is getting better."
August 2008
