xavier pesito was just three years old when his frequent fevers and eye infections were diagnosed as a rare form of blood cancer. his mother, cynthia ngo, was told that chemo would only do so much — xavier would need a stem cell transplant.
juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (jmml) is a rare form of childhood leukemia that predominately affects children under the age of four,
according to
the national organization for rare diseases. in jmml, cells called monocytes grow uncontrolled in the bone marrow and begin to crowd out the healthy cells.
when healthing.ca spoke to cynthia, she was in the hospital room with xavier who had just had a stem cell transplant a few days earlier.
how long did it take to find a match for him?
it’s been officially three months since he was diagnosed.
what was the xavier diagnosed with?
he was diagnosed with a rare type of child cancer, leukemia, called jmml. not a lot of kids who have leukemia have this type, [in canada] less than a handful of children in every three to four years have jmml. there are very little treatment plans because it’s a very unpredictable type of leukemia.
he was experiencing a lot of symptoms. he had fever, then he had bloating in his stomach. my parents who watch my kids for me sometimes, they would be like, something’s wrong. why is he so bloated? i thought it was because he just had a meal or a snack. then he got fevers, almost every month he was getting a fever for about a week. i would take him into the pediatrician, and they thought it was just a fever he’s having and nothing’s wrong, give him tylenol and it would be fine.
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