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!!!!!!! 