Maddie Dukes

In talking with our Case manager "Kristin" she recomended Caring Bridge as a way to channel our emotions as well as inform our family and friends of Maddie's progress. For those of you that are not familiar with our story, I will fill you in :) Tuesday March 30, 2017 we took Maddie for a sick visit at our local Pediatric Center, she started running fever Sunday and it just would not break. Going in we had a few other concerns,  we had noticed alot of bruising in the last few weeks, along with some petechia that started showing up in the last few days. The Doctor confirmed she had a bad ear infection, and felt the other was just common toddler things, I asked that she do a CBC just to make us feel better. Me being a nurse the bruising and petechia brought up some red flags. The results of the CBC was not what we were exspecting, it was Heart Wrenching to here Leukemia. Maddie's WBC was dangerously high, we were told to go home, throw some clothes in a bag and head to Egleston Children's hospital in Atlanta. Upon arrival at Elgeston the Doctors got us back pretty fast, they started fluids and ran several tests, this confirmed it was Leukemia, we would not know what type till Later that day. 
 Wednesday March 31,  2017 Dr. White informed us that she had B Cell Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL),  this is the most commen type of Leukemia in children.  Now the doctors could work on a treatment plan.  That day alot of information was thrown at us from every direction, alot to process in such a short period!! That afternoon they had Maddie's treatment plan, which they explained clearly. Thursday morning she would under go a Port Placement, Lumbar Puncture (with first round of chemo inserted) and a Bone Marrow Biopsy.