#SullyStrong

On Friday, August 29th, the Dots Tots Foundation Board of Directors unanimously voted to support a 3 ½ year old boy named, Sully, in his fight with Leukemia. Below is his story as shared by his Mom, Megan. The family lives in Delaware, Ohio.

#SullyStrong

May 19th, 2014. Just writing this date makes me shudder. Every day, 46 kids are diagnosed with cancer. We were one of those families on that sunny day in May.

What felt like a completely normal day, went south and quickly. Sully went into to our pediatrician at 1:30pm in the afternoon to check for symptoms which were align with the mumps-which is what he was diagnosed with and sent home to “work through”. We made arrangements with grandparents and our daycare provider for the days leading up to the long holiday weekend.

Then at 9:59pm, on our way to bed, our pediatrician called and said “the pathologist has confirmed and Sullivan’s labs and elevated white blood cells confirm… he has leukemia”. We were told to immediately come to Children’s and go through the ER.

It felt like someone kicked us in the gut-a bad dream that nearly four months later, we cannot wake up from. 36 hours after receiving that call, we began chemo.

Sullivan, 3 ½ year old and a natural born superhero and worlds best big brother, is battling ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Hyperdiploid). He is in month four of a 3 ½ year treatment plan. He is seen at Children’s at least one time a week, with the next 10 weeks spent inpatient 3-4 days every other week [that’s 30-40 nights in a hospital bed!]. We are back & forth and juggling work, all the while, keeping our lives as normal as possible for our baby girl, Harper. Over the next three years, we will pay an extra $10,000 annually between deductibles, co-pays, prescriptions, gas and meals.

The medical costs, additional living and working expenses are [adding] up, but we move forward because that’s what you do-keep things going. It’s exhausting, but if somehow it keeps us the way he was before he was sick, it’s worth it.

We hope we are able to put a face with a growing epidemic so families down the road can have a cure-and fast!