Jacob’s story began on Father’s Day in 2015, when he was 3 years old. His family noticed him limping and his mom took him to urgent care. Following blood work and x-rays, the devastating news came a few days later. “Your son has leukemia.” They were admitted to Rady Children’s Hospital, their home for the next year and a half.
Jacob was first diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome because his bone marrow results showed no leukemia cells. The doctors told Jacob and his family that he would need a bone marrow transplant because this would slowly turn into leukemia. After three months of chemotherapy treatment, Jacob was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia M-7, a rare type of leukemia that is very hard to treat.
After several rounds of chemotherapy, blood transfusions, complications, and hospitalizations, Jacob received his cord blood transplant in January 2016 and was declared cancer free! Jacob is now 6 years old and doing fairly well. He is still dealing with the side effects of the chemotherapy, including hearing loss, elevated liver enzymes, and GVHD. However, this strong warrior hasn’t allowed any of this to stop him from being the amazing young boy that he is.