Valerie

Valerie Rivera would really like to travel abroad –first to Mexico to meet her grandparents, and then maybe to Europe to check out the fashion scene.

Thanks to Children’s Hospital Central California, she’ll be healthy enough to do it.

For a little over a year now, the only travel this 11-year-old has experienced involved the round trip car ride between her Modesto home and Children’s Hospital.

In late 2006, Valerie began to experience pain in her joints and bones. Doctors thought it might be arthritis or a blood infection, but tests were inconclusive. It got so bad that she started having problems walking, and had to use crutches to get around.

“She couldn’t move by herself,” says Valerie’s mom, Maria. “We had to carry her wherever she went.”

In March 2007, Valerie underwent further testing at Children’s Hospital. The news was not good. Valerie had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL. It’s a common form of childhood cancer that affects the white blood cells. Malignant, immature cells are overproduced in the bone marrow. These cells then travel through the blood stream and can crowd out normal, healthy cells and spread to other organs within the body. The disease can be fatal in weeks or months if left untreated.

“It was shocking to hear,” says Maria of her daughter’s diagnosis. “But it made us feel comfortable knowing that we were with people who really cared for these kids and loved their work. They said they didn’t know why Valerie got cancer, but they knew how to get rid of it.”

Fortunately, Valerie’s prognosis was positive. Doctors gave her about an 80 percent chance at survival.

She immediately started treatment under the watchful eyes of pediatric oncologist Dr. James Ozeran and the care team at the Hospital’s Starship Craycroft inpatient unit.

Valerie underwent six months of intense chemotherapy treatments, often staying at Children’s for three or four days at a time. One stay lasted 10 days.

The treatments worked. By September of 2007, Valerie was in remission.  Twice-monthly check-ups followed to make sure the cancer hadn’t returned. Now Valerie makes the short trip down Highway 99 just once a month.

Though the risk of recurrence will always be there, it decreases significantly after five years. Today, Valerie is healthy, happy, and ready to enter the sixth grade at Capistrano Elementary School in Modesto.

Through Valerie’s ordeal, Maria became a devoted fan of Children’s Hospital. When her 7-year-old son Matthew broke his arm, Maria made the trip south just to have him seen by the pediatric specialists there.

“They treat the kids like kids,” she says. “It’s just not the same at any other hospital.”

As for Valerie, she’d still like to make that trip to Europe some day. That’s just fine with mom, with one stipulation, of course.

“If she goes,” says Maria, “she takes me with her.”

Journey Sponsored by Wishon Radiological Medical Group, Inc. – Fresno Breast Center
Adventure Sponsored by Fresno Falcons