When mysterious bruises appeared on my four-year-old’s legs I started to worry… truth baffled even the doctors
A MUM began to worry when mysterious bruises began to appear on her son’s legs and the truth left doctors baffled.
Aussie mum Doone Breckon became alarmed after routine bruises on her son’s legs became abnormal dark purple.
Then they started to spread. When Slater, now five, complained of a sore tummy, his parents took him to their doctor in Clermont, Queensland.
The doctor, clearly alarmed by the boy’s condition, advised the parents to send him to a much larger medical centre at Mackay, which was 300km away.
After initial tests medics feared that Slater might have leukaemia. The family were then flown to a larger facility at Brisbane, where tests revealed the boy was suffering from from aplastic anaemia.
The condition, an extremely rare blood disorder, prevents the bone marrow from producing new blood cells.
The family chose a bone marrow transplant, and Stem cells were flown in from a 20-year-old man from Germany.
The operation took place in August, which was followed by a gruelling marathon of blood transfusions, chemotherapy, tests and drugs.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Breckon said: “We went to Brisbane with just $300 in our bank and we thought, “How are going to do this?
“We were just living paycheck to paycheck because we had just moved to town and Dylan just got a mining job and he had no annual leave or sick leave.”
After a set back last November when Slater suffered from kidney problems, the family made it back home for Christmas.
Slater has just broken through 100 days without a set back, which is seen as an important milestone in his progression.
The family said they were optimistic going forward, but realised that Slater was not in the clear yet.
Ms Breckon said: “We are still in that limbo area of hoping these cells kick on and hopefully his T-cells don’t take over.
“That’s always in the back of your mind and you try not to dwell on it or worry about it because life’s so short and you’ve just got to live.
“We always tell him you’ve got to eat your veggies because broccoli boosts your red blood cells in your bone marrow.
“No one ever teaches you how to be a parent to a sick child.
“He can’t play in mud, he can’t play in sand, he’s got to wear shoes in the yard and animals are a big factor and disease transfers if they lick his skin.
“Even touching elevator buttons. Little things like that are a massive trigger in our life.
“Hopefully in a year he is off all his medicines and he could go live a normal life.”
A GoFundMe page to help the family pay for accommodation and medical expenses was set up by Ms Breckon’s boss Fiona Daley.