The Hampton Family

Jordan's Journey Began the week of Christmas 2022. He developed an on and off fever with no other symptoms. His skin started turning pale and yellow which told us something was not right. We brought him to the Emergency room on Christmas day where they ran a handful of tests. His blood counts came back dangerously low and told us to head to Children's Masonic Hospital right away. We left  there with the Doctors last words being "we see these numbers in childhood cancer patients". We spent the drive to the hospital making phone calls, arranging a dog sitter and babysitter for our 6 year old daughter. Once phone calls were in order, we drove in silence not knowing how to process the word "Cancer". We arrived at the hospital, they were waiting for us and we went straight to a room where they gave Jordan two blood transfusions and uttered the word cancer again. It was a long day and night, our minds were still trying to process this. Our little high energy 3 year old was hooked up to fluids and blood, not knowing whats going on. He repeatedly cried out "I want to go home", which hurt our hearts. After many tests, ultrasounds and X-rays, we were admitted to the 5th floor- Oncology. We waited 2 days before we were given the news that Jordan has B-Cell Leukemia. Although we were slightly prepared for the diagnosis to be cancer, we cried. A lot. Anytime a Doctor visited our room, they never failed to remind us to keep cancer at the top of the list for likely diagnosis's, which is why we were somewhat prepared for that to be what he had. We spend the next 8 days there where he received two chemo rounds and a handful of different medications. We were overwhelmed. Christmas and New Years came and left while we lived in this Hospital room without our daughter and still hadn't celebrated Christmas. 
I ran an in-home daycare and my husband is a firefighter. I had to close my daycare and we moved to down to one income. We were not prepared for this and it’s a monthly struggle to stay afloat.