I just knew...

It must have been momma's intuition.

The weird symptoms threw me. Bruises. Bone pain. Low grade fevers that weren't kicked by antibiotics. Loose teeth bleeding when wiggled.  Nose bleeds. Lack of appetite. Fatigue. And finally pallor. Something along the weeks leading up to the diagnosis made me remember some of these mentioned in one of my many medical drama obsessions over the years. I knew they could explain leukemia. But surely I was being a paranoid helicopter parent.  All of these could be explained away on their own.  But together? I asked a friend in the medical field if I was being paranoid. She said no, to take her to the doc.

The pediatrician agreed they were concerning, but that she had an ear infection we needed to get cleared up before we pursued any further testing of our (my) hypothesis.
So we went about our plans for a weekend trip, but she kept getting a fever, wasn't eating much and her color kept going off. By the time we returned home Sunday she was feeling some better and I thought maybe I was being paranoid again.   She went to school the next two days, but I got a call Tuesday from her school saying she was white as a ghost and her teacher thought she would pass out.called hubby to pick her up and I booked it home.

Rushed home so fast, I got pulled over for not stopping at a Stop sign. I was balling by this point and the cop let me off with a warning due to my circumstances with me promising to let my husband drive us all.

Called her pediatrician at lunch so on call answering service, left an urgent  message for them to call back whether to go to the ER or head to their office first.  They had us come in and then the same pediatrician gave us the choice to get blood work done at their other office or go to the ER.  We chose the ER.

Literally while we waited for blood work in the er, more tiny bruises and petechiae showed up on her arms and legs. And then the docs came back and confirmed it was something severely wrong with her blood, and a hematologist oncologist would be down to talk to us.

I diagnosed my own daughter and I don't have a medical degree.

Our life forever changed in that moment in time.