On March 22, 2001, Kathy and Sal Ricigliano took their 5-year old son, Michael, to the doctor’s office for some routine blood work. Michael had just attended his first spring soccer practice of the year that morning and was excited for the upcoming season. However, though he had displayed no real outward symptoms, blood work revealed that Michael had developed Acute Lymphocytic Lymphoma (ALL), a type of leukemia that results in rapidly accumulating immature and functionless cells in the marrow and blood. The marrow can then no longer produce normal white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. ALL is the most common form of leukemia in children under 19 years of age.
After a tough three-year period, Michael is less than two months away from the end of his treatment. At the end of June, 2004, he will be going off of his medicine and will be able to resume the life of a regular 8-year old, with no nightly shots, no visits to the hospital, no more blood counts.
“Michael doesn’t really remember not being sick,” explains Kathy Ricigliano. “Even with his illness, he’s led a relatively normal life-— he plays baseball and soccer and loves school. But we’re all ready for this summer. The other night, he asked me, ‘Mom, why can’t I just be a normal kid?’
Like most young leukemia patients, Michael is much more than a ‘normal kid.’ Through his chemotherapy, spinal taps, and nightly medicine regimens, he remains upbeat about the situation. His positive attitude influences everyone around him, including his parents and siblings. In fact, soon following his diagnosis in 2001, his younger brother Matthew decided that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, to help kids like Michael when they get sick.
Kathy explains that playing soccer has been a great outlet for Michael through the three-year battle with ALL. “He always wants to play,” says Kathy. “Last Saturday, we were in the ER at 5:30 AM for a fever, and we were in the hospital until 8:30 AM. When we left, Michael asked me if we were going to his 11:00 AM soccer game. I just laughed and said, ‘No way! You’re going home to rest.’ But soccer kind of puts him on a level playing field with the other kids. Everyone is running around, everyone is tired. He’s no different in that respect. He mainly plays defense, and he scored his first goal last year. He was so happy.”
The Riciglianos live in a town called Center Township about an hour north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Michael plays in the town’s youth soccer league. The family travels to Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital to visit Dr. Ritchey every two weeks for Michael’s treatment. The distance can be difficult, and it is difficult to find people to talk with in town about the disease, as Michael is the town’s only patient. However, as Kathy explains, she’s managed to find support groups.
“Having a support group is highly important,” says Kathy. “I belong to a group I found through the Candlelighters, and I belong to an AOL support group. Children’s Hospital has been helpful as well-— they sent someone to come and talk to the school about the disease. Michael was starting kindergarten and he had no hair because of the chemo. The school had a Hat Day for him, where all the kids could wear hats. He is also allowed to wear a hat every day.”
Overall, Michael has responded very well to treatment and is currently in remission. He had minor side effects in the beginning, and it was hard for the doctors to find a good white count level. Kathy explains how the spinal taps were probably harder on her than on him.
“It’s amazing what kind of inner strength you find,” says Kathy. “I never though I would be able to do this, but you just do it. I have to be strong for him and I try not to cry in front of him. I always tell people who ask how I’m doing, I’m doing well if he’s doing well. If he has a bad day, I have a bad day. We’re almost there now. He knows it’s almost over, and he can’t wait.
“I think the biggest thing he’s looking forward to is being able to explain that he’s not sick anymore. He wants to own a toy store when he grows up, although the other day he said he wanted to own a mall. He also talks about helping other sick kids someday, like his brother wants to do. The doctors do say that a lot of kids who had childhood cancers end up in the medical field. There are some things you can take away from the experience. I’ve had to learn so much about the medical field, and I would never have felt compelled to learn these things before. There’s so much to learn. My biggest fear of course is relapse, but I try to take it a day at a time.”
The Riciglianos have much to look forward to this summer with their annual vacation. This year the vacation will be a special one, as it will mark the first trip away from home with no medicine in the carry-on bag.
“We let Michael pick the spot for the trip this year and he wants to go to Disney World. I’m so happy for him. He’s looking forward to it, and so are his brothers and sister,” says Kathy.
After this article was written in early May, Michael had a minor setback in the form of a virus called Fifth’s Disease, which caused his white blood cell count to plummet. The family spent a difficult month of May going back and forth to Children’s to figure out just what was going on with the cell counts, but Michael is feeling better as June rolls around and has been cleared to play soccer again. Good luck to the Riciglianos and we wish the family a wonderful summer.
