Jacob Gibson04/27/2005
Simi Valley, Ca
WARRIOR'S Story
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Jacob Gibson aka Gibby was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia T-Cell on July 13, 2018, he was 13. He hadn’t been feeling well and after bringing him to his pediatrician for an exam and bloodwork, the Dr called us a few hours later and told us to get Jacob to CHLA immediately. Upon arriving at the hospital we found out the his white blood cell count was around 840,000 and that he was at risk of having a stroke. At this point he was transferred to PICU for around the clock monitoring. In the days to come we got his diagnosis and a roadmap of his treatment plan. Our initial stay at CHLA was ten days.
After we returned home we were fortunate to find Jacob’s primary oncologist who had a CHLA satellite in Ventura, that is where we would continue weekly and monthly chemotherapy treatments and blood product transfusions. During this time it became obvious that Jacob’s dad would no longer be able to travel and cover the multiple states he had been for work. With a new job, pay cut and another round of deductibles, medical bills started to stack up.
This first year was extremely difficult, many long trips back to the hospital, reactions to many of the different drugs, neutropenia, lots of blood and platelet transfusions and even an additional trip to the PICU when he went septic. We spent Christmas and New Years in the hospital, at some points it seemed like Jacob just couldn’t catch a break. However, the great thing was after the November Lumbar Puncture Jacob was No Evidence of disease. Through it all he remained positive, tried to keep his smile, entertained his nurses, doctors, friends and family.
Finally in May of 2019 Jacob was able to end the intense chemotherapy phase and start the maintenance phase. He will continue chemotherapy until November 16, 2021. Fortunately he’s been able to handle this better for the most part. After much persistence on his part we let him start back to school for his first year of high school. With that came many germs and more illness but he was able to battle and fight off most of it without having to be admitted.
Jacob is now 15 years old going into his sophomore year of high school, he is the youngest of our 3 children.
He hopes to attend the University of Oregon and wants to be an Oncologist when he grows up. In the meantime he enjoys lots of time at the beach (his happy place), spending time with friends and family, and just enjoying life to the fullest!
Please help Jacob to continue his battle against cancer!
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Kenan Bal
51 years ago