Wesley Culbreth

August 2019

Wesley was diagnosed with Philadelphia Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (Ph+ALL) in June of 2017 when he was 3 years old and his brother Wyatt was 3 months old. Wesley had been having horrible leg pain off and on for about a month. His pediatrician wanted to get some blood work and an x-ray to see if we could figure out what was going on with his leg. That night our family’s world was shaken in a way we never expected. His leg hurt because his bone marrow was so packed with cancer cells they were spilling out into his blood.

Ph+ALL is a rare high-risk type of Leukemia. Because of this his treatment is very intense and long. We have spent over 200 days inpatient at Randall Children’s Hospital getting treatment. In the past 2 years we have spent at least one of every holiday inpatient. I can’t even count how many clinic or ER visits we have had. In the course of treatment, so far he has had 3 surgeries, 2 ports and a G tube.

I count us very lucky in this journey that his complications have been minimal (*knock on wood*). It hasn’t been easy, but with the chemo he has had there could have been way worse situations. Through it all Wesley and Wyatt have made the best of this situation. We all go to every appointment together, so Wesley knows he is not alone. And the nurses always try to bring fun to every visit. This is a horrible journey for a family to have to go through, but with support I know we will be okay in the end.