Medical Fund for Grandson EZEKIEL
Donation protected
Ezekiel is our 7th grandchild. Ezekiel was just diagnosed with Leukemia. Rex and I have set up this fund in hopes of helping Zeke's parents out with their medical bills for the next 4 or so years of his treatment. Donations of any size are appreciated.
Zeke's story, as told by his dad, our son, Adam:
I guess it is safe to say that this whole process began around Mother’s day of this year (2015). The evening of Mother’s day, Zeke woke up late with extreme leg pain, so much so that he was unable to walk. No pain medication that we had at home would help. So after several hours of trying to soothe him and make him feel better, we decided to take him to the ER.
Several x-rays and blood work bouts later, still no idea what the problem was. So we went home when he was looking to be feeling better, but the leg pain persisted for another week, eventually leading our pediatrician to believe it was Transient Synovitis – basically just inflammation of the joints, causing pain and limping. So we treated the inflammation with Children’s Motrin, and it seemed to work until his symptoms were gone.
But then his cold never fully went away, and a few weeks later, he had another episode of the leg pain, inability to walk issue. So we treated it the same, with Motrin, until his symptoms were gone, and so we were thinking, again, that we were in the clear.
A few more weeks went by, his cold still slightly persisted, and now his color was just looking incredibly pale. And he’d become very lethargic and just simply not his normal self. Then Thursday, July 2, he woke up with what looked like random bruises all over his arms and legs, and so we decided that was probably something we needed to address, and we made an appointment for the Dr. that afternoon.
As soon as the Dr. walked into the exam room, it was clear she thought something was wrong. She asked us to head over to the lab, have blood drawn and then to wait for her to call with the results. So after an hour of sitting in the hospital lobby, we figured it was after office hours and that we were over waiting, and just wanted to go home. So we walked out to the car, got everyone buckled in, and as we were about to back out – the Dr. called.
“Ok, so I have some bad news, are you guys sitting down?”
Those words felt like an instant heart attack for me. The Dr. then went on to explain that this was basically one of two things – Zeke either had Aplastic Anemia… or Leukemia.
She had us admitted right then to give him a blood transfusion because of his dangerously low blood and platelet counts, and then after our first night in the hospital with him, we got the official confirmation Friday, July 3, 2015 – our son, Ezekiel Alva – has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
While we are beyond devastated by this news, we are at least slightly relieved to know that this type of childhood cancer has a very good success/cure rate (95%). And so we don’t have a fear that he will lose this battle, not at all. We have enough faith to know that All things work together for good to them that love God. We are, however, just broken to realize how much pain our little boy is going to have to go through during his treatments.
But we ask for prayer in that this is going to be a very difficult new journey for us. We ask for prayer that we’d have the knowledge and understanding to best help Zeke and comfort him through all of this. We ask for prayer that the doctors would be blessed with God’s presence and peace so that they can best perform their duties to help Zeke. We also ask for prayer that we can do our absolute best to NOT NEGLECT either Joey or Mac through this whole ordeal. Because live is not going to stop for them just because Ezekiel is sick, so please pray that we can have the understanding to know how to best balance this time. And lastly, please pray for strength for Stacia and myself – That we would be able to be the best parents we can be to ALL of our children through this difficult time. We know that none of this is going to be easy, and we know that this is a very important time that may be a defining time in our lives, so we ask that you pray for our strength, peace, and even for our JOY. Pray that we can find joy in even the little things.
https://www.facebook.com/godstrengthenszeke
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ezekielalvalowe
https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/l818k4
Zeke's story, as told by his dad, our son, Adam:
I guess it is safe to say that this whole process began around Mother’s day of this year (2015). The evening of Mother’s day, Zeke woke up late with extreme leg pain, so much so that he was unable to walk. No pain medication that we had at home would help. So after several hours of trying to soothe him and make him feel better, we decided to take him to the ER.
Several x-rays and blood work bouts later, still no idea what the problem was. So we went home when he was looking to be feeling better, but the leg pain persisted for another week, eventually leading our pediatrician to believe it was Transient Synovitis – basically just inflammation of the joints, causing pain and limping. So we treated the inflammation with Children’s Motrin, and it seemed to work until his symptoms were gone.
But then his cold never fully went away, and a few weeks later, he had another episode of the leg pain, inability to walk issue. So we treated it the same, with Motrin, until his symptoms were gone, and so we were thinking, again, that we were in the clear.
A few more weeks went by, his cold still slightly persisted, and now his color was just looking incredibly pale. And he’d become very lethargic and just simply not his normal self. Then Thursday, July 2, he woke up with what looked like random bruises all over his arms and legs, and so we decided that was probably something we needed to address, and we made an appointment for the Dr. that afternoon.
As soon as the Dr. walked into the exam room, it was clear she thought something was wrong. She asked us to head over to the lab, have blood drawn and then to wait for her to call with the results. So after an hour of sitting in the hospital lobby, we figured it was after office hours and that we were over waiting, and just wanted to go home. So we walked out to the car, got everyone buckled in, and as we were about to back out – the Dr. called.
“Ok, so I have some bad news, are you guys sitting down?”
Those words felt like an instant heart attack for me. The Dr. then went on to explain that this was basically one of two things – Zeke either had Aplastic Anemia… or Leukemia.
She had us admitted right then to give him a blood transfusion because of his dangerously low blood and platelet counts, and then after our first night in the hospital with him, we got the official confirmation Friday, July 3, 2015 – our son, Ezekiel Alva – has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
While we are beyond devastated by this news, we are at least slightly relieved to know that this type of childhood cancer has a very good success/cure rate (95%). And so we don’t have a fear that he will lose this battle, not at all. We have enough faith to know that All things work together for good to them that love God. We are, however, just broken to realize how much pain our little boy is going to have to go through during his treatments.
But we ask for prayer in that this is going to be a very difficult new journey for us. We ask for prayer that we’d have the knowledge and understanding to best help Zeke and comfort him through all of this. We ask for prayer that the doctors would be blessed with God’s presence and peace so that they can best perform their duties to help Zeke. We also ask for prayer that we can do our absolute best to NOT NEGLECT either Joey or Mac through this whole ordeal. Because live is not going to stop for them just because Ezekiel is sick, so please pray that we can have the understanding to know how to best balance this time. And lastly, please pray for strength for Stacia and myself – That we would be able to be the best parents we can be to ALL of our children through this difficult time. We know that none of this is going to be easy, and we know that this is a very important time that may be a defining time in our lives, so we ask that you pray for our strength, peace, and even for our JOY. Pray that we can find joy in even the little things.
https://www.facebook.com/godstrengthenszeke
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ezekielalvalowe
https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/l818k4
Organizer
Vivian Beachamp Lowe
Organizer
San Clemente, CA