For parents, seeing their children down with the flu or common cold is hard enough. Imagine the grief and heartbreak parents must experience when their children are afflicted with something vicious like cancer.
That’s perhaps what Bostonian mom Casey Skinner goes through on a daily basis after she discovered that both her twin sons Logan and Raegan had leukemia.
According to a Sun report, she first found out that one of her boys has it, then a month later, she discovered that her other twin has it too.
She had first noticed that noticed her son’s skin was jaundiced and bruised easily.
The first twin to be diagnosed with the illness was Logan, in 2012. Then Raegan was diagnosed as well.
“Because they are identical twins, they were at a higher risk,” Casey told the Sun. “In the beginning, doctors said it was an 85 per cent chance of survival, but the chance of relapse is higher in the first years of treatment.
“Regan wasn’t unwell when he was diagnosed but he had got an identical bruise to Logan.”
Photo credit: South West News Service / SWNS
The twins were diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
Things took a turn for the worse when Logan developed septicaemia during his treatment, at which point the mother thought she would lose her mind.
“I just remember when I took him into hospital and when you see the nurses panicking and they are screaming for the doctors,” she recalled. “We thought, ‘He might die now,’.
“Luckily they got him straight on treatment, that’s when you realise how serious it is. You think it won’t happen to me or my kids and then you realise that you are not invincible and that’s so scary.”
At first she thought that if her second son would get the same disease as his brother, she wouldn’t be as scared.
However, when she finally got the confirmation that he did have it too, it “hit me so hard.”
“I wondered whether I would be able to look after both of them—but I got through it,” she said.
Logan underwent six months of intensive chemotherapy and has since finished his treatment. Regan on the other hand, needs to undergo four months, and is due to finish next month.
“After their courses of treatment they both have to have maintenance checks—including blood tests—every four weeks for the next three years,” the Sun report said.
“The boys will also have to have a lumbar puncture, where fluid is drained from the spine, every 12 weeks, and they’ll have have yearly check-ups for the rest of their lives.”
Find out more about Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on the next page!
What is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia?
According to cancer.org, ALL is a type of cancer that starts from lymphocytes, the early version of white blood cells, in the bone marrow—the soft inner part of the bones and where new blood cells are made.
“Leukemia cells usually invade the blood fairly quickly,” the website says. “They can then spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and testicles (in males).
“Other types of cancer also can start in these organs and then spread to the bone marrow, but these cancers are not leukemia.”
Signs and symptoms
It’s important to note that people with ALL may experience different symptoms, however some are more common with certain subtypes.
cancer.org offers these symptoms:
- Feeling tired
- Feeling weak
- Feeling dizzy or lightheaded
- Shortness of breath
- Fever
- Infections that don’t go away or keep coming back
- Bruising easily
- Bleeding, such as frequent or severe nosebleeds and bleeding gums
READ: 15 Cancer signs in children that you might be ignoring
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