ABOUT TYLER

MAY 2014 The Beginning

Tyler is truly an inspirational little boy. He is a very clever two year old boy who talks like he is well beyond his years. He loves to run around playing and watching football a true Manchester United supporter. He's very active and loves to climb! He has a big sister Brooke who is 4 years old and they are best friends, they look after each other all the time and its wonderful as a parent to see how close and loving they are. He is a very confident and resiliant little boy who never lets anything get him down! He loves to make people laugh and is constantly chuckling away - the smile never leaves his face! He's never one to turn down a challenge and is very competitive even at such a young age. He never moans and complains about all the treatment and procedures he has to go through, he just gets on with it. Even long hours that are spent at hospital with him playing or reading books. Everybody who mets him including his consultant and doctors are so pleased with how he is getting on and how well he responding to treatment. His determination has never faltered through out the last four months. As his family we could not be prouder of him and we are all behind him 110% in his long and hard battle to beat this cancer!

Once we arrive at RMCH we were seen by the on call oncology doctor to take the history and advised us on what would happen next. It was a complete shock to the system to see all the children in the ward currently poorly and receiving treatment, I still felt like I was in a dream. Tylers bloods were sent over to his specialist consultant for him to view to confirm if there were any cancerous cells within them. Tylers dad Michael and big sister Brooke had to go home and I was to spend the night in hospital with Tyler. He managed to get some sleep but I spent the night thinking allsorts it was literally horrendous I cant explain the feeling you get knowing someone so tiny could be poorly with this life threatening disease. Guilt, devastation and anger are some of the things going through your mind but also worry with what tomorrow will bring.

In the morning again before Michael arrived Dr John Grainger arrived at Tylers bedside and asked me to accompany him to his office to go through the results of what he had seen. He sat me down and confirmed as suspected Tyler had Leukemia. I didnt know what to feel relief for now having a diagnosis, anger for why this is happening to my poor little man when he hasnt never hurt a fly yet muderers and rapists escape such diseases when they deserve it more. I still cant truely put into words how i felt or still feel now. We were informed of Tylers treatment which would include chemo which would last over three years and would start immediately. We were told we would have a lengthy stay in hospital with lots of treatment and procedures to follow. I then walked out of the room knowing that our lives had changed in that one moment and that nothing else mattered but what we could do as a family to help our little boy.

The very next day Tyler was to have a bone marrow and lumbar puncture chemo which involved him having a number of needles and to be put to sleep. Walking in that room surrounded by a number of doctors and nurses was petrifing and sitting there holding your tiny little boy whilst he had a mask on to put him to sleep was truly horrible. Putting him down on that bed limp and alseep and having to leave him there was the hardest thing I ever had to do. My whole world was falling apart and I was determined to stay strong and not let it. The most important person was my son lay a few feet from me and he needed me to be strong, he didnt deserve to see his mum and dad so scared as he would then feel the same. I made a promise to myself then and there that he would never see me like that. He would see me as a pillar of strength and feed on the positivity I would give him through him seeing me be like this. This was the beginning of a new chapter in our lives the hardest thing we have all had to do and its not going to end anytime soon.

Tyler is a two year old little boy who has recently been diagnosed with Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). We had noticed Tyler was very pale and just not himself. He also started with flu like symptomys like achey bones and being very tired. Later in the day Tyler started developing very dark purple and blue bruises and lumps over his belly back and legs which we found really strange because we knew he hadn't injured himself. We decided to give him a bath to see if any of his symptoms improved but it the short time it took to bath him we noticed a red rash appearing from head to toe, this rash was typical of meningitis and was none blanching. This is when we knew he needed to be seen ASAP. We took him to the walk in centre who confirmed it looked like meningitis so we werw sent straight to childrens A&E for tests.

Once we arrived at A&E tyler was rushed straight into the treatment room to start treatment for meningitis. He had three canullas placed, two in his hands and one in his feet and lots of medicines pumped straight into him. The doctor confirmed to us that he was 99.9% sure that it was menigitis and we had caught it in early stages but took some bloods to confirm this diagnosis in a number of hours.

During the night these blood resuults were back and we were told not to worry the doctor would come and see us in the morning because it was good news, they showed he didnt have meningitis. We were so thankful he didnt have this awful condition and even managed to sleep for a few hours. Very early in the morning a doctor and nurse came through the door to speak with me (Tylers mum) in relation to the blood results. I wasnt given time to register what was going on but as we were told it was good news I didnt worry as they told us not to. Nothing could ever prepare me for what I was about to be told (bearing in mind I was on my own and Tylers dad was on the way.) They told me they suspected Tyler had Leukemia. I was completely floored, the world stopped spining and I felt as though my whole world had come crashing down before my eyes. I couldnt process this at all. I just looked at my gorgeous little boy laying there so scared wondering what was going on. I could not believe there was a chance he was so poorly and we hadn't known. We were told we were being transferred to Manchester Royal Childrens Hospital ASAP and being admitted to the oncology (cancer) ward for further tests, an ambulance had been called and would be with us shortly.