Urban Onramps

my son Samuel’s foot keeps hurting

My six-year-old, Samuel, if you don’t already know, is a leukemia patient. He was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2004. He went into remission in August 2004. As far as we can tell, there is no trace of leukemia in his body. But the treatment protocol for childhood leukemia, ALL (which is what Sam has) is about a three and a half year period. We are hoping and praying that he will finish chemotherapy by Thanksgiving 2007. Overall, Sam is doing very well. He’s grown tall, taller than any of his classmates (he’s a first grader at Harambee Prep). But he’s had this persisent pain in his foot. The doc says it may be related to the vincristine he takes every month. These days he slightly favors one foot over another when he walks. In a couple of weeks they will take him for x-rays and see if there has been any damage to the bones in his feet. One of the side effects of all this is that he sits around a lot - on the couch or in bed - and rests his foot. He’s fairly active, but often has to stop and get off his feet. I don’t know why that bothers me, but it does. And I certainly don’t want his foot to be damaged. He doesn’t think about the matter as I do. His foot simply hurts, and so he takes a load off.

posted Jan 26, 2007, 10:56am by Rodolpho Carrasco