Anthony was your normal all american boy, excelled in school, very athletic participating in school track, school basketball, boxing and his passion soccer. He would be busy training, practicing and attending games 6 out of the 7 days of the week majority of the year and lived every second of it, even on off time he would bring that soccer ball every whereto get in extra practice. Anthony began having knee pain. We were told it was just growing pains. As time went on it got progressively worse, knee pain turned into excruciating leg pain accompanied by petichei, bruising,fatigue, bloodshot eyes, vomiting. Still it was downplayed at each emergency room visit to growing pains, oshgood-schlatters disease, stomach bug and getting older. Finally, on July 27th 2017 Anthony was notable to walk on his own two legs, it was entirely too painful and he was too weak to do so. He was running103.6 fever. His own pediatrician sent us straight to Texas Children’s hospital, roughly two hours away from us.Within 20 minutes and by a simple blood test we got the devastating news. It was Leukemia. It wasn’t until July 29th that they diagnosed him officially with VHR b-cell ALL. Our world crumbled around us it was the worse day of our lives. All Anthony could think about was whether or not he was going to die and was heartbroken by the fact that his soccer dreams were brought to a screeching halt. Right now Anthony is doing well though, responding well to treatment and has been in remission since end of induction. He is currently at the end of his Interm Matinencephase and no longer in excruciating pain. We thank God everyday for his progress even though he is still heartbroken that he didn’t get to start his freshmen year like a normal teenager, and he won’t be able to resume his sports or resume a normal fifteen year old life until later on down the road. a.m We just take it one day at a time and count our blessings.

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