Oakleigh was just a bit over three years old when she had leukemia symptoms. Her mom and dad really want to spread awareness about childhood cancer, especially symptoms so that people would not miss a diagnosis.
Oakleigh had horrible leg pains which they were told was growing pains, night sweats (mom said she always ran hot in the night), and viral infections. Her caring and compassionate parents had taken her to Spokane prior to all the leg pain as she was having a ton of viral infections. They were watching and waiting until Oakleigh had a really hard time walking and one day just couldn’t get off the floor. So they took her to urgent care where they live about two hours from Spokane and they ran x-rays, thinking it could be arthritis. They also finally ran labs and found the leukemia.
Mom says she didn’t know if it was because she was 14 weeks pregnant, but it was truly hard to process and says sometimes it still feels surreal.
Today Oakleigh still goes to the hospital once a month for IV chemo and takes oral chemo every day at home. She has been in treatment since July of 2022 . In the meantime, her little brother Bennett is very busy and doesn’t understand being cooped up in a hospital room when they are here.
Oakleigh’s mom says trying to get back to normal life has been challenging after being in fight or flight mode for so long. It’s hard mentally to move forward even with less visits to the hospital because the fight isn’t over yet. Another thing they struggle with is Oakleigh not being her sweet, kind self when she’s at the hospital because she instantly goes into defense mode.
Oakleigh’s family got to go on their Make A Wish trip to Florida and that was a nice break. Oakleigh is all about play and does her treatment like a rockstar. She will finish in about 6 months and they are all very excited about that!!
