We were out trick-or-treating, and Finley seemed fine, enjoying his half-term week off school. Then, one night, he started to experience chest pains, complaining that his ribs hurt. He woke up in the middle of the night, screaming in pain. As his mum, I settled him back down to sleep but woke to find him still in pain the next morning.
I always think the worst when it comes to health issues, so I started thinking, Is it his heart? Is it his lungs? Could that be what's causing his chest pain? I called 111, and they said he needed to be seen by his GP. The GP initially suspected a pulled muscle, so we went home, hoping things would settle down. However, we went back and forth to the doctors for weeks, as Finley still didn't feel right.
One night, Finley woke up screaming in pain with a high temperature. I texted my husband, admitting I had done something stupid—I had Googled Finley's symptoms and was worried he might have cancer. I took him to get checked, and after tests at two hospitals, they took me into a room alone. We went in, and as soon as I sat down, I said to them, "I know what you're going to say." She asked what I thought they would say, and I said, "It's leukaemia, isn't it?" That's when they confirmed it.
From that moment on, Finley spent months having treatment, and our family was constantly travelling back and forth to the hospital. Treatment was tough. We were under the impression that after the front-line treatment, we would get back to some form of normal, but it never happened. We spent the next three and a half years anything but normal.
Finley finished treatment on February 19 2022 and finally rang the 'End of Treatment Bell' in April. We were looking forward to a big family end-of-treatment holiday in Florida.
However, Finley noticed some lymph nodes on his neck in January. I stayed calm and took a photo, saying I would monitor them closely. They continued to grow, and after four weeks, I mentioned it to the oncology team.
The lymph nodes kept growing. Then Finley presented with the same symptoms as before -bone pain and an unexplained fever. His blood tests remained 'normal,' and the doctors remained convinced it was a viral illness. But I just knew it was back. I asked to speak to the primary care centre for a second opinion, and that's when they suggested flow cytometry.
We did this, and within 24 hours, the relapse had been confirmed - just over a year after completing treatment. Finley has had a rough time since the relapse and ended up in PICU after a 20-minute seizure. We thought we were going to lose him. He's made a good recovery, and we commenced chemotherapy, hoping to get rid of the cancer once and for all!