Dorian’s Story

Site created on September 11, 2019

Dorian is a very spunky, stubborn, adventurous, humorous, loveable 3.5 yr old! He loves to make friends no matter where or who it is, especially if they have stickers or candy.  This kid is strong, I am telling you. You would never think they could get cancer. 
4 weeks of constant cold symptoms, random fevers,  and then a couple weeks of petechiae (dark, purple spots under the skin, not raised) and pale lips. I (mama) thought I was going crazy when I thought..man this cold won't let up. Andrew (daddy) and I took him in 4 separate occasions with our concerns, and was thought that he was just having a battle with a bad upper respiratory virus and it was kicking his butt. 
September 7th, 2019..Our 2nd trip to the ER was by far the scariest I have ever felt in my whole life. Dorian could not breathe, he had raspy breathing and he became super weak. I thought we were going to lose him. We got to Gunderson Lutheran in Lacrosse and instantly the doctor put him on oxygen and ran a chest scan. He was concerned that Dorian may have pneumonia because of his breathing. After looking at the scan, the ER Doctor wasn't convinced it was pneumonia, so he ordered blood tests ASAP because that would give him a better look at it all. That's when the pathologist discovered his white blood cell (WBC) count was THROUGH the roof, it was 600,000 when a normal range is within the 10,000 range. YIKES. The ER doc then told us that he highly suspected leukemia. He was then sent up to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) up the stairs so he can be treated for his low oxygen levels and a thousand different blood tests and procedures to be done..especially tests from the Oncology team. This was important because they had to figure out what exact blood cancer he had. 
After an hour, the Diagnosis became to be Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, B Cell (which was then retested to make sure)
While this was all happening, Dorian's stats had been dropping , so the decision to sedate him and get him on a conventional ventilator to make sure he is getting enough oxygen to his brain. Not much long after that the different teams of doctors had all agreed that he needed more breathing support.. This meant being airlifted via helicoptor to the American Children's Hospital in Madison, WI.  
Now, Dorian is in the BEST place he can be to be treated for his cancer, and for his breathing support he desperately needs.
He is already responding to the chemo medicine, YAY!! 
Please Keep Dorian in your thoughts, prayers, whatever you do. We need all the best wishes and good vibes to get him over this huge bump in his life! I will keep updating as things progress.

Newest Update

January 2020

Journal entry by Chelsea Aguilera —

January 2020 seemed to go super quick for us!! 

Dorian started his IM phase, where he gets a high dose of methotrexate (chemo) and then 4 days of observation as he filters it out. This is to make sure the methotrexate doesn't hurt his organs. During this stay he gets vincristine as well, plus a nightly oral dose of mp6. So all these chemo meds take a toll on his little body. He gets pretty nauseous for about a week after each treatment, so he is on a continuous supplement of tube feeds until his appetite and nausea will stay away just enough for him to want to eat. But that's okay! The tube feeds are there as support for his nutrition and weight.
Dorian has weekly PT and OT in conjunction of weekly trips to the infusion clinic to do checkups on him. We definitely put the miles on this month for sure! At least we are becoming familiar around the hospital because Dorian loves to walk around to say hi to everyone..he is so friendly! 

Overall Dorian is doing better with his treatments, his spirit is intact and he can be such a goof with his nurses! 
 
This little man is such a warrior. 
Keep it up STRONG BOY!!  <3

Read More of the journal titled "January 2020"
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