Gino :: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Gino’s mom Amanda shares her son’s journey with cancer:

Gino was diagnosed at 18 months on January 5, 2010. It all came about over one weekend; he was sleeping through the whole day, not really eating, and was becoming pale. We had taken him to the ER on Saturday night and the P.A. on duty told me that he was fine, but that if I felt that something was wrong I should follow up with his Dr. and I did! I called first thing Monday morning to schedule an appointment and we were able to get in the next day. Tuesday morning we took him in and right away his Dr. said she can see that something was wrong and she was going to test him for Leukemia, Lymphoma, and also have his thyroid checked. It was the last thing we thought was wrong. My husband had just lost job and I was 5 months pregnant with our second baby. We had his blood drawn and within 15 minutes his Dr. called and said that Gino was very anemic and we needed to get him to Memorial hospital for a transfusion and that a Pediatric Oncologist would meet us to go over the rest of his results. We ended up in Sacramento at the Women and Children’s Memorial Hospital and had him admitted. We were then taken up to the ICU and I just knew that something was extremely wrong. I did not know what an Oncologist was or what they specialized in. The Dr. said very bluntly that she was 99.9% sure that Gino had Leukemia, but to be sure what type they needed to perform a bone marrow test. Gino’s hemoglobin was only 3.0, so they informed us that he would not survive the procedure if he did not get multiple blood transfusions first. He began to receive them and they continued throughout the night. Gino’s white blood count was 97,000 and was considered a high risk patient because they were over 50,000. Gino’s bone marrow was tested and they confirmed that he had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Gino was given a 80% cure rate. That 20% is what still haunts us. Since his diagnosis Gino has endured more than most do in their whole life. Gino has had four surgeries to place a broviac, have it removed, have a medaport placed in, and his last one to have a new medaport placed because the one he had stopped working. Gino had the most beautiful curly hair before his diagnosis and then lost it all because of his treatment and it has come back straight. Gino has gone through physical, occupational, and speech therapy from his treatment. He is the most outgoing and straight forward child I know. Gino finished his treatment this last May and is doing amazing. It is a new experience for our whole family because cancer is all we have known since he was diagnosed at such a young age. We are constantly worrying that it is not really over, but from all that we have gone through we have learned that we can endure anything that comes our way. It may sound cliche, but this has truly only made us stronger. We may not be a religious family, but through this we have learned to have faith.

Photography by Brittany Wilbur
Music licensed by SongFreesom | Zerbin “Lift”