Help Brandi and Leo Through This Battle

Okay, bigger update. Last week Leo had a MRI, which showed something consistent with recurrence of disease; with less likelihood of it being infection. This put his Oncology team into overdrive and after reviewing all the tests they believed there was enough concern to warrant a relapse of his leukemia. They had me bring Leo in asap with the plan to admit him after his bone marrow biopsy. Results that should have taken less than a day took 2, we’re still waiting on cytology report which takes 2 weeks.. but they can say with confidence that his bone marrow still looks great, recovering but no leukemia cells. This lead them to reach out to Infectious Disease drs, Orthopedic drs and Neurosurgeons to dive into what was causing all this back pain. Yesterday 3 surgeons successfully attempted a bone biopsy of Leo’s spine, my biggest concern with this was his safety.. if at any point they felt they couldn’t get a sample safely without injuring him they’re would stop immediately. They were able to get some good samples which will be sent to culture the bone as well as send to pathology. Sadly the reality for Leo is because of his first cancer treatment he is now more susceptible to secondary cancers. While I can breathe that this is not Leukemia, I won’t be able to fully relax until they get the pathology on this “lesion” on his spine to confirm it’s not cancerous.

In the meantime they believe he has a very severe bone infection in his spine. Luckily I was so persistent with testing and we caught it early before anything worse happened.

Leo had surgery yesterday to place a PICC line in his arm(kinda like his port he had previously) so that I can administer IV antibiotics at home for the next 6-12 weeks. Things will look a little different for Leo for a little bit while we learn to live with the PICC, looking into if school is okay(minus gym, recess and any sports/physical activities).

He will have a home health nurse come to the house once a week to draw blood work and change the dressing of his PICC line. He will be heavily monitored for a while loving forward, lots of doctors appointments. Having the PICC line also puts us back on fever protocol just like during chemo, so any fever over 100.7 means I have to bring him to the ER for IV antibiotics and monitoring. We had a pretty rough night with pain and some really crazy post anesthesia headaches/dizziness. This morning he’s still in a good amount of pain and both his picc and biopsy sites are very bloody from bleeding too much, so that will all be changed out and fingers crossed we can get the hell out of this place and sleep in our own home tonight and get Leo some home cooked meals!

Thank you for all your prayers, your support and texts and cards for Leo! This is by no means over yet but one day I hope we can go atleast a few months without having to step foot in this UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh! #ChildhoodCancerAwarenessMonth #bloodcancer #FUCancer #leukemiawarrior #LeoStrong

This little guy is Leo. Please pray God's miracle over him. After a 3-year battle with leukemia, he was finally cancer-free. A few days ago, he went in for an MRI because of pain he was having, and unfortunately, the screens lit up bright red, which is never a good sign.

Yesterday, 9-11-2024, he started a bone marrow biopsy to find out more details and will likely be in the hospital for a while. My heart hurts for his mom, Brandi Caltieri. No parent should ever have to go through this, let alone a child. I believe in God and the power of prayer. Please pray and keep praying hard that cancer will be non-existent. Pray for the doctors who will be taking care of Leo today and going forward, that they keep him safe, and pray for his mom too. She recently lost her dad, who was her main support person, and now she will have to take a leave of absence from work as well.

We have created this account for Brandi and Leo so that hardship a second time around won't be a burden. Anything helps, and she appreciates all the overwhelming support. Please pray and just keep praying today!! God's got you, Leo ❤️#Leostrong