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Good afternoon, my name is Sandra. I want to tell you about an incident that happened to me. Well, not to me but to my son, and it was I who underwent this experience. What Seemed Like an Ear Infection... I want to begin to tell you how this all began, all of what happened to my son from the start. In 1998 we were completely fine, and my son started to feel bad all of a sudden--his ears began to hurt. I began taking him to the doctor--they sent me to see a specialist. I took him to the doctor several times, until they came to the conclusion that he needed ear drains to avoid infection, and this would control everything. The day came- -they operated on

my son, and they put in the drains. From that day on, my son completely stopped eating. We did not know what had happened. I took him to the doctor that week, and the doctor told me that this was natural, because it was something strange that happened in his body- -that he had in his body--and he needed to adapt himself, and as the days passed, this would go away. Several days passed, and once again the same thing happened: he did not want to eat, he refused to eat. "What's wrong, son, why don't you want to eat?" "I don't know mom," he says, "I am not hungry, food makes me sick". From then on, every day was the same. Then I took him to the doctor, and they told me, "Everything is OK, don't worry." He says, "Your son will get better. When this passes, everything will be normal." I say, "Why has my son been like this for so long?" He said, "Maybe a month, and all of this will pass."A month passed, and the boy stayed the same. Then we started to see that the boy was changing color. Now he wasn't a rosy-cheeked boy. He didn't have the same shine or the same energy to play. No, we saw him looking sad, like he was without energy. And I say, "What is wrong, son?" I don't know, Mom," he says, "I am not hungry. Food makes me sick." We took him to the hospital right away for the same thing, because for four days he had vomited what he ate. So we went to the doctor again, and they admitted him and told us that everything was OK--that the boy had a virus, but it was going to pass. In four or five days it would pass. After around a month and a half, I was definitely bothered, because they didn't listen to me. I talked to the doctor, and I said, "You are going to pay attention." I told him: "Will you pay attention for a moment? I want to tell you how my son is." I told him: "Every time that I bring him, you tell me he is normal, that it will pass. But I see my son like this." And I explained: "I want you to please take care of him." They told me that they were going to do more tests and look more in depth to see what the problem was. Then they told me that he possibly had gastritis and that they were going to give him medicine. But first he needed to see the gastroenterologist to see what the problem was, exactly. But my son needed to wait, because there wasn't a doctor here in Sacramento. The doctor was on vacation. Then crying, I said, "Send me to another place where there is a doctor, but I want him to take care of my son." That was when the doctor saw that I was nervous and said, "Can you take him to Oakland?" I said, "Yes, I am prepared to take him wherever you all tell me, but take care of him already." Then they gave me the appointment. ... Needed Closer Inspection I took him to Oakland, and they gave him--they put a probe through his mouth. They found that he had an ulcer. But the ulcer was small and could be controlled with medicine, and the boy would get better. They suggested we go home, and that in a week we make an appointment with the doctor to see if the medicine was working. After four days, my boy continued completely the same. I decided to talk to the doctor and acknowledge that they had told me the end of the week, but I wanted them to see him before that, because [my son] felt the same. I didn't believe that a person could handle so much without eating. They told me, "Bring him in for your peace of mind. But your son is OK." So I took him to the doctor, and I explained to them again how he felt, my son, what he had. They said, "Look, we are going to do more tests to see how he is." After doing the tests, the doctor looked scared and he says to me, "It looks like your son has a virus. Your son was weak, and we let him weaken too much, and it looks like he has a virus." He says, "But don't worry. Everything will be OK." I say to him: "What kind of virus? What is it that he has?" He says, "Look, it looks like his white blood cells aren't working. It looks like he has leukemia, and you need to take him immediately to be admitted, to know for sure if this is what it is. But they need to take marrow from the boy to tell you exactly what it is, this thing that he has." I tell him: "OK, just tell me where I should take him, and I will take him." Diagnosis: Leukemia That same afternoon I took [my son] to the doctor, and after about three days, after they took out marrow, they already diagnosed the child with leukemia. You can't imagine how hard this is to go through. I don't wish this hard, hard disease on anybody, but one needs to be strong. My Lord, our Father helps one to move on, and also, secondly, sometimes people help a great deal. I was very desperate in the sense that I didn't have a way to get to the doctor. That was when they put me in contact with the people from the American Cancer Society. And they offered me their help, their support. This, at first, was very difficult because I did not speak English. But they told me: "Don't worry. We are going to help you. We are going to give you a person who will interpret for you all of the time. Whenever you need something, there will be people to take you to the doctor and take you back home." And that is exactly what happened. Whenever I had to take my son to the doctor, I called the American Cancer Society. They came to pick me up at my house and later took me back to my house with my son. And this is how I got through three years, all that time they were there taking me at the correct times, whenever I had to go. I had another son in the house and they took him, too. I always went with my son. Life after Treatment Well, thank God they already released my son. This October it will be one year since they stopped the medicine, and to me this seems impossible. But thanks to God and to the doctors, my son survived this disease. Now he is completely fine and well--he doesn't have a single problem. I am only taking him to the doctor once a month so that they can check him. But he says that everything is fine, and the boy is normal. I forgot to say before that when we were going through this disease, many times it was so difficult because one feels so sad. Sometimes one doesn't want to go out anywhere, because everything depresses you. And in the American Cancer Society, they were always trying to help, to entertain us. They tried so that the boy would always be well. And besides this, they helped a great deal in the way that they were always aware of every event that there was, like for Christmas, for Easter, for Mother’s Day. They always sent us invitations, and we went to the parties. They were very beautiful, because they made games for the kids, they gave us food right there. And apart from all of this, we never had to spend anything. All of it they gave us. They motivated the children to be playing. I realize that at those times, when we went to those little parties, we forgot about the disease that we were going through. We forgot about it for a little while, because my son was happily playing, very calm. He didn't even remember what was happening due to the hard medicine that they were giving him, and it was all beautiful. I want to tell other people who are going through this disease to always ask God My Father to help you to survive this illness. Never despair, because there are always people to help, whenever. They lend you their help, sentimentally, like the transportation, which for me helped a great deal. And I want to also say to others, don't ever despair--support those who have a similar disease, or moreover, those who have cancer, and never lose faith.