Gerard was 15 months old when he was diagnosed. He has an older sister, Felicity, who is 2.5 years old. Ever since Gerard was born, we've called him our "big, tough" guy - big and chubby and extremely healthy. Before this week, he had barely ever had a runny nose and never been prescribed a drug for any illness.On March 30, 2016, Gerard fell down a few inches and hit his shin. Because he had always been an active and adventurous 15-month-old, Cally and I didn't think much of it. However, the next morning, he wasn't walking well. We made an appointment and took him to get x-rays at our pediatrician's office.The x-rays didn't reveal anything wrong with his leg, so we assumed it would heal itself in the next few days. However, after almost two weeks, he was still having trouble walking and putting weight on his leg. We got a few x-rays at our doctor's office which again came back clean; we were referred to Children's Hospital for more specialized Orthopedic care. After more x-rays, the orthopedic specialists could not find anything wrong with him, so they sent us to take a blood sample.The initial blood sample showed Gerard's blood platelet count was extremely low. Concerned, the Hemotology clinic did a blood smear that found suspected Leukemia cells in his blood. On the afternoon of April 13, 2016 little Gerard was diagnosed with Leukemia.We thank the Lord for the fact that Gerard fell down a few weeks ago and brought this disease to the forefront. We appreciate all the prayers and support we have received from family and friends. We encourage all of you to pray for our little guy. More specifically, we ask that you offer the following prayers:Prayer to St. Gerard for a Sick Child (
http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=503).Novena to Venerable Fr. Flanagan (
http://www.fatherflanagan.org/documents/Father-Flanagan-Novena.pdf).
