Brayden’s Journey:

Over the summer of 2021 Brayden had pains in several different places on his body. One week was his back, another week was his shoulder and neck and one week was his knee. Sometimes he would run a fever with his pain. During the summer we saw orthopedic, urgent care and ER visits. They would always say he has great range of motion and just treat with ibuprofen.

On August 10^th Brayden was hit in the back with a slide on shoe, the next day Brayden was in a lot of pain. Took him to urgent care and they said everything looked fine. I knew something was wrong but didn’t know what. I finally was able to get him into his pediatrician office on 08/17/21. On that day I suggested bloodwork. At first, she said no he just has something going on muscular and to follow up with orthopedic. I was very persistent about labs to be drawn so she sent us downstairs at 9am to have a CBC drawn. That same day at 3:30pm I received a call from the pediatrician stating my son had Leukemia and she had spoken with a hematologist at CHOA and told us to get there that evening. We was admitted to CHOA on 8/17/21 where they ran test and on 08/18/21 Brayden was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. On 08/19/21 Brayden had his port placed, bone marrow test that showed 95% of his bone marrow was cancer cells, and chemo started that day as well. Brayden is tolerating Chemo well currently. We know this is going to be a long journey, but we will get through this with lots of prayers and God on our side.