Elijah Reese

No child, parent, or family ever thinks the major things will happen to them. What started out as tonsillitis led to an unexpected diagnosis and a big life change and journey for us all. After seeing the pediatrician, and then the ear nose and throat doctor in regards to his tonsillitis we received a call Thursday January 31st telling us Elijah had to get to MUSC (Medical University of South Caroline,) as soon as possible that something was wrong. So we loaded up and off we went not knowing what we were walking into. It wasn’t until we arrived in the children’s emergency room and they started running tests that we found out that the urgency and unknown in him needing to come ASAP was the one word no one wanted to hear. It was the one word no one had thought of and it was so hard to hear it and comprehend....we are testing your child for cancer. His results weren’t good so they admitted him not knowing for sure what we were looking at being wrong. After tests Thursday night we knew by Friday morning we were for sure looking at cancer, we just didn’t know yet what kind or how bad. After surgery and more tests Friday I sat down with the doctor at 6 pm Friday and got the worst news of my life no news a mother wants to get about her child. He was diagnosed with stage 4 Burkitt’s leukemia the worst stage there is. February 1st 2019 was his diagnosis day and the official start to the long road we have ahead of us.