Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Benefit - Valentino



Valentino Emanuele DiStefano  12/31/2012

Vale’s story begins in late November of last year- his mother, Viviana, went back to work full-time. Vale had to change daycare facilities.  He got sick, mom figuring it was from all the extra kids = extra germs spreading around; as would ANY other mom. The weeks went on and he was continuously sick. One day at daycare, he hurt his foot. He didn’t complain, didn’t want to be ‘babied’ by being carried. He was taken to his Pediatrician, where the doctor proceeded to order an X-ray; the results demonstrated that it was indeed fractured. A cast was put on and remained on for 3 weeks, removed on January 6th. The first time he tried to walk on the foot, Viviana helping him, it was painful for Vale. One day, the daycare had called and mentioned that he had a high fever and that his foot appeared to be swollen. Out of concern, his mother took him to see the doctor to ensure that there was no underlying issue. They did an X-ray and the Dr. said it was healed and said ‘the boy may be complaining or not walking out of attention.’ 2nd week they decided to get a second opinion, he was scheduled to see a Pediatric Orthopedic doctor at Penn State. On 1/30/2017, the Resident on staff commented that he could tell that Valentino was in pain. Mom, in the meantime, was noticing how pale her little boy was getting. The head doctor came in and said that he was fine. Viviana demanded blood tests and an MRI be done to make sure there wasn’t something they were missing on the X-ray and she suspected in the least that he was anemic. Blood work was done and the results were sent to a Hematology Oncology specialist. IMAGINE being a work (OR ANYWHERE) and you receive a call… The first words spoken are “Your son’s blood work came back abnormal.” Your son is very sick, his blood counts are as follows Red: 2.8 (should be at least 11.5), White 243 (should be above 1500), Platelets 25,000 (should be at least 172,000). Viviana and Samuele (dad) took him to be admitted to Penn State Children’s Hospital at Hershey for immediate blood and platelet transfusions. Valentino was sedated for the next procedures: spinal tap and bone aspiration. These were performed to confirm his illness and to see if the infection/disease had spread to his spine and/or brain. It was in this moment that they confirmed that Vale has Leukemia A.L.L. THANK GOD that the A.L.L (Pre-B cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) had not spread to his brain and/or spine. He is undergoing Chemo treatments daily and IV infusions weekly to try to save his life; the first 6 months of such brutal beatings for this young soul. Then, 6 months to 3 ½ years of treatments, which will be sporadic to keep it in remission. Then if that all goes as planned, he will be considered CURED from this awful disease.
              !!!!!!!!WE ARE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU, VALENTINO!!!!!!!