Team Colten

On Tuesday, January 5th, Colten was diagnosed with leukemia.

We decided to take him to the doctor because he was very weak, tired, irritable, and wasn't eating much at all. We thought he was anemic and they would take some blood, maybe give him some medicine, and send him on his way.We went to extended care at JCMG and saw the nurse practitioner. She did his exam and seemed pretty concerned. She called the doctor in and the doctor examined him then told me it was important that Ryen get there ASAP and that I take him straight to get labs done. I called Ryen and he came up to the office as soon s he droppedKinsey off with his mom. Dr. Folz sent me straight to get labs and a chest X-ray done without putting Colten's pants on him or anything. At this point I knew something was very wrong because Ryen needed to be there immediately and they were rushing me to get tests done with all of our stuff left in the room and with Colten just in a shirt and a diaper.After the tests were done, Ryen was there in the doctors office room waiting for us. We got the results back of his blood work and all of his counts were super low. Dr. Folz told us she believed he hadleukemia andthat we needed to go straight to a children's hospital. We chose Women's & Children's hospital because its closest to home and we need to be with McKinsey as well.Once we got to the hospital, they ordered more tests, he had a couple blood transfusions to get his counts up to a stable level and had to do a bone marrow biopsy to determine the type of leukemia he has. The biopsy was done on January 6, 2016. We got the preliminary results back that night of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) - also called Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. On January 7, 2016, we got more definite results. The doctor said its B cell ALL and that his treatment plan will take 3 years but he is confident that he will overcome it. This is the most common childhood cancer and the survival rate is more than 90%, which gives us hope. He also received his first round of chemotherapy on January 7, 2016 and got a PIC line put in for medication, fluids, and blood draws.

He is still a happy boy most of the time. Well, at least when there's no nurses around. He hasn't made friends with them yet. Please pray for Colten, that his body reacts to the medication and that he kicks cancer's butt!!!