Leo was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was 4 years old, our world stopped turning. My once lively, active and happy boy was now being pumped with chemo and laying in a hospital bed getting poked with needles and being held down constantly. Leo did all of this with a smile on his face though, every day a smile! Frontline treatment seemed to be okay for Leo, not too many unplanned hospital stays, just the normal planned Chemo and expected sickness from chemo. When Leo hit Long Term Maintenance was when problems started. He started taking oral chemo daily, getting spinal taps and steroids every 3 months instead of weekly(which was a relief). He was constantly puking, lethargic, sleeping, bruises all over his body, hypoglycemic. He could barely function, which was so hard to watch because I was told once we get to this part of treatment he will be able to get back to a “more normal” type of lifestyle. His doctors tried switching nausea medications, adding additional medications, his liver levels kept rising and rising which made him feel worse. He stopped eating. I finally said enough and they tested his Metabolites to see how he was metabolizing the oral chemo he was taking, it turned out he was metabolizing the chemo extremely too fast, which meant it went directly too his liver in turn making him extremely sick. So his doctors had a solution to decrease his chemo dose and add an additional drug to his daily regimen. This was a life saver! I watched my little boy come back to me! He still caught many many every day sicknesses from kindergarten and had more than his fair share of hospitalizations. Weeks spent inpatient for RSV, a bacterial infection, you name it he had it. I’m proud to say my baby boy rang the bell on 7/13/2023!!!! That day will forever be burned into my brain! Leo has been fundraising for money for Squishmallows to donate to our local Oncology Floor at our Children’s Hospital. He said he wants every kid going through what he did to have something soft and cuddly to squeeze while they get their port accessed or get sleepy medicine. I love that through all of his journey he has found a way to be so selfless as to want to give back