^^Angel^^ Enrique H. - Quilt Finished in 2008

Born: January 23, 1996 - Passed: March 24, 2009

Illness: Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

Enrique H.'s Story

Written by Enrique's mom in February 2008

When our son, Enrique "Kiki", was born it was one of the happiest days of our lives. He was the first boy to be born into our family. Our family had all girls. So everyone was so happy to have a boy finally. When he was born he was jaundice, but they did tests and everything was fine.

He grew up to be a very healthy and happy baby. He broke his arm when he was 1. But other than that I had no problems with him. When he turned 5, his sister Stephanie was born. It was then I noticed that he was getting kind of chubby. From that day it just kept getting worse. But we thought he would grow out of it. In December of 2003, Christmas Eve, Kiki (his

nickname) was complaining that his back was hurting but we thought he just slept wrong. We went on our Christmas trip to Arizona to visit his grandparents and the whole time we were there he was just in pain and didn't enjoy Christmas at all.

In January 2004, I had taken him to the doctor about half a dozen times. When the pain finally reached his ankle, that is when the doctor sent him to the hospital for tests. That day was the worse day of our lives. His doctor told us he had cancer and it was called Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). It turned out to be Type B, which was a good chance of curing his cancer.

I was in shock, more shock than sadness and I just asked the doctor what do we needed to do to fight this. Kiki went through chemotherapy for 6 months. He did very well during his treatments and only had to go to the hospital a few times with fevers. He also had to go through spinal tap procedures, which checks his blood to see if cancer has come back or not.

Kiki went into remission in August of 2004, still undergoing chemotherapy treatments and spinal tap procedures. In January of 2007 he went into relapse. They found a large amount of white blood cells in his spine. He has gone through more chemo and cranial and spinal radiation. He is currently doing more chemotherapy. He is in remission now but still undergoing chemotherapy and was just hospitalized for low blood counts and fever.

He has had no appetite these past few weeks and has been vomiting a lot more. He hates the smell of foods and different things. This I think is the worst that he has been through. His counts are taking a while to come back up. He has been such a strong boy through all of this. He is a very quiet and shy person, but really hasn't complained about any of this. We try to make him as happy as possible. We are heartbroken that he has to go through this and I apologize to him everyday. I just remind him that he has to stay strong and have faith that he will get well and beat this ugly thing called cancer.

Kiki did start back to school on August 15th, 2005. He can't go back to the classroom but he has a teacher come from the district to our home an hour a day. He really loves being homeschooled and his teacher, but the doctor says if he's feeling well enough, he can go back to his classroom in a few weeks. I think he is anxious about that. I think it's time for him to go back to school so that he can start building some friendships. He has lost touch with his friends. But he does have a lot of cousins that he considers to be his friends and he has a lot of fun with them. Since being diagnosed with ALL, Kiki has not been on the Golf Course which he loved to do. He was taking lessons, but hasn't anymore in 2 years. He keeps himself busy with his sister, his Xbox, his computer, and the TV of course. He loves The Simpsons, he watches it everyday. He also finds ways to entertain himself with his action figures and water balloons.

I think ALL has definitely changed his life, but hopefully one day he will look at this and say "What a life I've had, I've been through a lot, but I'm still here and still going strong!"

Since I last wrote Kiki had graduated from 5th grade and started middle school in the Fall of 2007. He stopped chemo treatments at the end of July 2007. He had been doing really well. A week before Christmas his back was hurting really bad so I took him to the doctor and she gave him some pain pills thinking he hurt his back somehow. Well the back pain did not go away. The decided to admit Kiki to the hospital and do a bone marrow aspiration and spinal tap. The spinal tap came back clear but the bone marrow looked suspicous. The next day the doctor pulled me into another room and said yes that the leukemia was back in his bone marrow. We were just devasted to say the least. Kiki especially. He has been going through this for 3 1/2 years and he thought he finally had won and to have the cancer come back...pure frustration. Kiki was able to go home for Christmas. A week later on New Years Eve Kiki woke up and could not breathe

well. I called his dad and he came to pick him up and take him to the clinic. He almost passed out there. The immediately admitted him to the hospital. At the hospital his vital signs were not good. He got a really bad virus and we were scared. But he pulled through but we have been in the hospital ever since because he has a very bad skin disorder the doctors don't know what it is yet. His stomach is all red and puffy and his legs. He has alot of fluid in his body that is now just starting to drain from his body.

It's been really tough for him being in the hospital 27 days now (February 2008). He hasn't even been outside. Please pray for my son, he needs all he can get right now.

UPDATE: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 11:25 AM CDT

Kiki earned his Angel wings...He is free...NO MORE PAIN!!! His pain ended at 2:10 am this morning with his family all around him. He was strong and never gave up the fight. Now he is in the hands of the Father who will nurture him into one of his angels to look over us. Please pray for his Mom Monica, sisters Stephanie & Abby, Father Mario and brother Sebastian for strength from the Lord and courage to endure this sad time.

God Bless,

Tony