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At 18 months of age, Gabriel was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (pre-B cell).
He was placed on CCG 1991 treatment protocol and is now a happy, healthy, cancer-free 12 year old!


Check out Gabe's Smile Quilt

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Journal

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 11:33 AM CST


Gabe celebrated his 9th birthday last week. Hard to believe! He is on a yearly ONC recall. Surprisingly, I miss seeing his nurses. A year is a long time! Now, when we go to clinic the nurses chatter about how much he's changed. It's true, he has grown by leaps and bounds this last year. Not just in height and weight, but also in other ways. His health continues to improve. After chemo, he struggled so much with asthma and allergies, but now he is slowly recovering. One thing I did that I believe really helped him was to put him on an Anti-candida diet. This gave his gut a chance to heal after all of that toxic, nasty, life-saving chemo and steroids. It has been since that time that he has been able to have dairy again- in small quantities- No asthma! He hasn't needed asthma meds for the last few months.And he's down to one allergy med a day! While I don't think we are out of the woods yet, he sure has come a long way!
Another measure of improvment is in his learning. Gabe's treatment included a double-delayed intensification phase. Basically he received an intensive round of chemo, followed by another intensive round of chemo. Some of the side effects of chemo in children are learning disabilities. While Gabe is reading beautifully, he struggles with fine motor skills. Writing neatly is torture for him. This is when I most appreciate home schooling because we can work at Gabe's pace.

A couple of strange things though. First, he still can't walk quietly at all! He just seems to stomp all over the place. Maybe because he was a late walker, then he had Vincristine at such a young age which affects the picking up of the toes when kids walk. He had to re-learn to walk while on Vincristine. So he doesn't pick up his toes when he walks, he just slams his whole foot down on the ground. I don't know- It's almost comical. And his appetite- it's like he's still on steroids!! This kid is always hungry!

In other family news, Steve graduated with his MBA last November. This isn't the best time to look for a new carreer but we are hopeful something will come up, preferably outside of Indiana! Seth will be turing 16 in June. Thankfully he has shown no intrest in driving. But when he does, Steve will have his hands full! I take comfort in knowing that if having a child with cancer didn't throw me over the edge, then having a child behind the wheel won't either. Or will it?

Well, here's to another update and another year of health and happiness!
Anjie

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E-mail Author: anjiereisinger@gmail.com

 
 

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