Meet Jacob

Jacob's journey started July 5th, 2012 when he fell from the jungle gym at the park. He fell on all fours bruising his liver really bad. For that whole month he was getting tested to make sure that his liver was healing properly. Then in August, we took him to the emergency room since he was running a high fever and they sent us home saying that it was a stomach virus. They gave us antibiotics but he only seemed to get worse. About a day or so later we took him back to the emergency room where he was admitted. His fever came back with his face being swollen and he couldn’t open his mouth. That weekend they diagnosed him with Mono. We thought Mono, how does a 3yr old catch Mono? They sent us home and he was doing well until he woke up one morning with a swollen hand. My mother in-law took him to go get massaged. After that first massage he was feeling great. A couple of days later he was playing with his sister and he landed on his hand and hurt it again. My mother in-law took him again to get massaged but this time the swelling didn’t go down. We took him back to the emergency room just to make sure that it wasn’t broken. They told us to follow-up with an Orthopedic and we did. That day the doctor X-rayed both his hands and knees and told us that there are some abnormalities in his bones and that he wanted to do more testing.

A few weeks went by and we hadn’t heard from him. By that time he started running another fever, so I took him to see his pediatrician and she told us that if his fever got any higher over the weekend to take him back to emergency. She called us later that afternoon and told us to take him back to emergency immediately and to have the liver hematologist and any other specialist to find out why he kept getting sick. This was October 3rd and by October 9th they diagnosed him with B lymphocyte (B cell) Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Low Risk. His liver healed properly and we came to find out that he had the cancer in August when he was diagnosed with Mono. The doctors just didn’t think to test for it then since his symptoms were congruent with Mono. The following day they started chemo and inserted a Port-a-Cath (Port) into his chest. This will remain in his chest for the duration of his chemo. Thirty days later they did a bone marrow aspiration and he is in remission.

On a weekly basis he receives outpatient therapy (OPI) Chemo. So far he’s had two blood transfusions, five cerebrospinal fluid (intrathecal). The doctors told us that there will be a total of twenty five of those throughout the 3 to 3.5 years of chemo. Depending on his blood counts, that will determine if he needs any more blood transfusions. As a parent you don’t ever think that when you take him to the doctors or emergency that he/she will be diagnosed with cancer. It was a relief to finally figure out why he kept getting sick but has been an emotional roller coaster since we found out.

Jacobs Support Page - Team Jacob Sebastian Garcia

Hope Session by - Eva Lempert Photography