William Durst

At the beginning of October 2022 Peter started having high fevers. At first we thought it was just a virus or something from school, but none of his older 3 siblings got sick. The fevers continued to come back each day and spike up to 104 even though he was on Tylenol and Motrin around the clock. After 2 separate visits to his pediatrician we had no answers. On Monday Oct 11th we went to MUSC After Hours, they swabbed Peter for the Respiratory viral panel, all came back negative. Tuesday we had blood drawn at LabCorp. Wednesday Peter's fever went to 105 and would not come down. We went back to MUSC After Hours, where his fever finally broke, the doctor told us to wait until we got the lab results the next day because that would give us the answers we needed. We got home at 10:30pm, at 11pm the doctor that we had just seen at MUSC called my cell phone and told me to take Peter to MUSC children's hospital ER immediately. She said she couldn't sleep because she was so worried about Peter. I asked her what was her main worry and she said Leukemia. I cried as I scooped up my son from his bed, grabbed a few belongings, left my husband with our oldest 3 kids and drove to the ER. The next 24 hours were the scariest and most overwhelming of my life. Peter was seen immediately, tests done, hooked up to multiple IVs and we were told he would be admitted as soon as there was a bed. Very quickly a group of pediatric oncologists came in and said Peter likely had leukemia but they had to do more testing to be conclusive. Only a few hours later Peter was undergoing a bone marrow biopsy, the first of many procedures. At 9pm on Thursday Oct 13th we were brought to a family room and told that Peter has B cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We spent the next 8 days in the hospital beginning his chemotherapy and treatment.

Since his diagnosis I have had to step away from my job as a preschool teacher so I can care for Peter full time. My husband had to take FMLA leave from his work at Publix for the first 8 days to care for our oldest 3 kids. We live in Summerville so it's been a long commute getting to and from the hospital multiple times a week, and unfortunately we have older cars that have required multiple fixes in just these first 2 weeks because of all the extra driving and distance we have had to drive. It has been a difficult strain on our family emotionally, physically and financially. Since Oct 12th Peter and I have only been home 7 days. Peter's siblings (Natalie age 11, William age 10 and Gabriel age 7) are struggling so much seeing their baby brother so sick and not having us both home. We are trying to learn to live this new reality and supporting and caring for our kids the best way we can.

Legos, Nerf guns, Harry Potter, Minecraft

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