Sometimes a serious illness can come out of nowhere. That was the case for Trevor Moultrie. When he was just 15 months old, his aunt, Cerita, who was babysitting him one day, noticed he was acting lethargic and running a low-grade fever.
“He didn’t have a wet diaper that day, so she thought that he might be dehydrated,” said Trevor’s mother, Sherri. “That’s how it all started.”
Sherri and her husband, Terrance, met Cerita and Trevor at Children’s of Alabama’s emergency room, where doctors ran numerous tests. Doctors noticed his stomach was large and hard, and X-rays revealed he had an enlarged liver and spleen.
“We were getting nervous because we ended up at the ER for so long,” Sherri said. “Eventually, we knew something was going on because the doctors and nurses gathered at the nurses’ station and talked, then came over to us. They told us that all of the tests suggested he had leukemia.”
From there, a series of blood work revealed that Trevor’s red and white blood cell counts were very low and confirmed that he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In fact, his bone marrow was over 90 percent diseased.
“Finding out he had leukemia was like standing on a highway and a truck going 80 miles per hour just hitting you,” Terrance said. “It was shocking. Before then, he was always so healthy.”
Trevor was immediately admitted to the hospital, where he spent two weeks receiving aggressive chemotherapy treatments and undergoing tests and procedures, including blood transfusions, bone marrow biopsies and spinal taps.
“It was a hard two weeks, but the doctors and nurses did everything they could to help us,” Terrance said. “They would check on us and they really got to know Trevor, which made him more comfortable. They took such great care of all of us.”
After the first two weeks of treatment, Trevor got to go home on what happened to be his sister Mycah’s birthday. Within that first month, tests showed the aggressive treatment worked.
“The leukemic cells in his bone marrow were down to less than 5 percent,” Sherri said. “We were so thankful for that incredible blessing.”
Trevor had to continue going back to Children’s weekly for further chemotherapy treatments for a while, eventually getting more and more time in between. Overall, he received treatment for about three-and-a-half years. Now, at the age of 10, he goes back just once a year for checkups.
“He has thankfully been in remission ever since he left the hospital after that first two weeks,” Terrance said. “Doctors say that his tests show it’s like he never even had cancer. He’s doing really well. He’s back to being a typical little boy who’s all about playing sports, especially baseball.”