Addy and Leo Wooldrige

"Addy was born with Spina Bifida with mylomengicele, hydrocephalus, clubbed feet and neurologic bladder. She has had 11 surgeries and procedures, in her almost 12 years of life, most of them at Riley Hospital for Children. With each one, she came through like a champ.

Things changed this August 25, 2022. Leo’s journey started with some pain in his leg on August 25, 2022.  As a parent we obviously told him to he probably just pulled a muscle as he just started weights for school and baseball.  He pushed through the pain and continued to go to school and practice.  On Monday August 29, 2022 he came home from practice and told us after doing one of the exercise he was in so much pain he dropped to the ground.  The next day I took him to urgent care still thinking that he had pulled a muscle.  They did x-rays and found nothing wrong.  After doing more examination they ran some blood test.  Do to the fact that it was later in the day, we would not get the results until the next day.  They told him it could just be growing pains and to take it easy the next day or two.  At 8:15 on August 31, 2022 the urgent care called and gave us news that would shake up our lives.  They said that his white blood count was very high.  So high that they believed it might be malignant.  We were advised to go to Riley Hospital ER immediately.  I called my husband and he met Leo and me at home and we took the trip we have taken so many times before but this time with more questions than ever before.

Riley Hospital ran another round of blood work to make sure that there was a not an issue with the blood from the first draw.  Once those results came back they informed us that he did in fact have Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Craig and I were crushed and of course scared.  Leo handled the news like a champ and said he was ok just ready to start treatment.  His Doctor then came in and gave us the plan.  We would spend some time in the hospital confirming the diagnosis and setting up treatment.  Leo spent the next few days getting blood draws and having many test ran.  After talking to the doctors we found that Leo has a less aggressive form of Leukemia.  The treatment plan was to take chemo through a pill once a day.  He will continue to take the pill, get regular bloodwork and met with the doctor outpatient.  In December 2022, we had a large blood test done and found out that Leo is already in stage 2 of 3 of remission.  He had some side effects when he first started taking the meds but has since started feeling better.  He was out of school for a bit but has gone back to that as well as continued to participate in baseball practice.  We cannot thank his HEMOC doctors enough for all their support and encouragement.  We are also very proud of how Leo has handled everything.”

- The Wooldriges