Boy, 13, boldly battling leukemia

Giovanni Cano, 13, may see light at the

end of the tunnel he knows as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), a

cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

Cano’s doctors at Sacred Heart

Children’s Hospital (SHCH) in Spokane, Wash., said his final day of

treatment would be Nov. 10, 2012.

“I will feel some freedom in not taking

all the pills,” said Cano of Libby. “I really don’t like all the

pills.”

Cano was diagnosed with ALL in August

2009 after his mother, Alma Cano, found a lump on his neck. Doctors

attempted to diagnose and treat the lump as an infection, later

realizing the lump was an indication of Cano’s disease.

“We flew on a medi-flight straight to

Spokane,” Cano’s mother said. “His white-blood count was so high,

his blood was sticky.”

Cano’s white-blood cell count was more

than 600,000 — a normal, healthy count is between 4,000 and 10,000.

ALL is the most common type of cancer in children according to the

National Cancer Institute.

A team of nurses and doctors met Cano

and his mother as they arrived at SHCH. Cano was taken directly to

the intensive care unit (ICU) to begin the tests and procedures to

prevent the disease from spreading further.

“The doctor didn’t want to treat

Giovanni like a 4-year old,” Cano’s mother said. “They wanted to

treat him like an adult.”

Doctors warned Cano’s mother he could

die right away.

Immediately, doctors told Cano he had

cancer.

“Am I going to die?” Cano asked.

“I started panicking,” Cano said.

Doctors began removing the toxic cancer

cells from Cano’s blood with a process called leukophoresis.

During this process his blood was drawn

out of him, sent through a machine where his white blood cells were

removed from his blood, leaving the red cells and plasma. This

remaining “cleaned” blood was then returned to his body.

“When they started cleaning my blood, I

thought maybe things weren’t as bad and maybe I would live,” Cano

said.

Cano stayed in the ICU for one week

before he was moved to standard inpatient room, where he would

spend another month receiving chemotherapy.

After a month in the hospital, Cano and

his mother moved to the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane to finish

his intravenous chemotherapy. Cano returned to Libby at the end of

March in 2010.

Cano returned to his sixth-grade class

in Libby and began participating in sports — doctors recommended he

return to his regular activities to prevent depression.

For the past year, Cano travels to

Spokane every 28 days for full body check-ups and blood work. Every

other week he has blood work at St. John’s Lutheran Hospital in

Libby. Tracking Cano’s white-blood cell count is crucial in

determining his oral chemotherapy dosages.

Cano ingests more than 30 pills a week,

including antibiotics during the weekends to prevent infection.

Cano is attending Libby Middle/High

School as a seventh-grader. He plays a guard position for the

middle school Loggers basketball team. In the spring he will begin

his fourth year as a forward for the Kootenai Rapids Soccer

League.

“I feel a little tired sometimes by the

end of the day,” Cano said. “But I’m feeling pretty good.”

At the Gonzaga-Ronald McDonald House

Charities (RMHC) Classic in Spokane on Nov. 26, Giovanni got the

opportunity to watch his favorite Gonzaga players in their win

against the Western Michigan Broncos. The RMHC in Spokane and

Gonzaga University Basketball are two organizations assisting

families with children seeking medical treatments in a four-state

region.

Cano will not miss taking his last pill

on Nov. 10, 2012. However he said there is something he will miss

more than anything.

“I will be sad when I can’t see all the

nurses and doctors at the hospital, they are my friends,” Cano

said. “I will miss my family at the Ronald McDonald House.”

For more information about the RMHC

please visit www.rmhcspokane.org/