Lupe De Leon
In the end of 2021, when Lupe was 6 years old, she began getting sick. While her siblings would get sick sometimes too, she took weeks to months longer to recover. Her sickness was worse and lasted much longer than her siblings. The family knew something was wrong.
Lupe ended up admitted in the hospital with 4 different infections all at once. There, they discovered that she had neutropenia. She was referred to a hematologist in Birmingham. After 3 visits and many tests, they still didn’t know why her white blood cell count was dropping.
On Feb 5, 2022, they were in Birmingham visiting her brother and sister in law. Lupe got sick again, but this time it was different. Lupe started throwing up, and they noticed blood in it. She was rushed to the Children’s ER. There, they did blood work and saw that Lupe had pancytopenia, meaning her white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets were all extremely low. They decided to look at her blood closer, and that is when they saw the blasts in her blood. They admitted her to the oncology floor and waited for Monday to send off the test for leukemia. On Monday, Feb 7, 2022, she was officially diagnosed with pre B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She had 96% blasts in her bone marrow.
Lupe had surgery to place her port, and she started treatment right away. The first 6 months of treatment was intense, and the family stayed in Birmingham close to the children’s hospital. She had frequent doctor visits, chemo, lumbar punctures, steroid induced diabetes, middle of the night hospital ER visits, hospital admissions and medications that left her anxious, tired, and nauseated. She also had an NG tube placed that she kept in for almost a year due to having trouble taking all the medications.
After 6 months, Lupe was able to go back home. She still had many oncology appointments, hospital ER visits, and a handful of hospital admissions. She and her family still continued to travel back and forth to Birmingham for her treatments for the next year and a half.
Lupe was finally able to start going to school with her peers at the beginning of 2023. She was so excited. She took her last chemo pill on April 25, 2024. She still has a long road ahead of her and frequent visits to monitor her recovery and possible long term side effects. But, despite everything she was and is going through, Lupe remains positive as much as she can. She loves to make videos, cook, do crafts, and she loves people.