Signs and symptoms of leukaeamia

Before Christian's diagnosis I never thought about leukaemia, didn't know about the symptoms, because you just don't think it will happen to your child.

Leukaemia in children is still rare although the number of new cases diagnosed each year increased steadily through the 20th century.

I would just like to mention the signs of leukaemia, I think it is good to educate people about leukaemia and I also hope you or your child will never experience this illness.
Also when I met other parents in hospital non of them knew signs of leukaemia and for some of them their child's diagnosis only came after repeated visits to GP and child becoming very unwell.

Symptoms:

• Anemia ( lack of haemoglobin),causing:

>Fatigue and limited capacity for exercise

>Breathlessness

• Low platelet counts, causing:

>Bruising within the skin

>Bleeding from mouth or nose and blood in the stools or vomit

• Low numbers of normal white cells, high number of abnormal cells and high metabolic rate, causing:

>Persistent infections

>Fever-this is often present even in the absence of clear indications of infection

How is leukaemia diagnosed?

It takes full blood count and bone marrow aspirate ( a procedure where a small sample of bone marrow is taken) to diagnose leukaemia.

Christian only had one symptom from above ( bruising), although these are signs of leukaemia, they could also be signs of other illnesses so if your child gets any symptoms don't panic, because it is very unlikely to be leukaemia, but if you are worried all it take is a full blood count, so you could ask your GP for a blood test.