Melissa will never forget the moment a doctor asked her to step out of her son Kasen’s room in the Emergency Department at Children’s Health and told her that her then-7-year-old son had leukemia.

“I was holding my youngest child, who was six months old at the time. Otherwise, my mind went blank,” Melissa said.

Months before, Kasen came down with a bad fever. Then he had another one. Those were followed by a couple of hard battles with strep throat. And finally, pneumonia. 

Was he bitten by a tick? Did he have a virus he hadn’t been tested for? Kasen’s pediatrician couldn’t explain why this healthy kid who was always active and up for a game of soccer kept getting sick. 

One night, Kasen’s fever spiked to 106 degrees. He couldn’t stop throwing up, and he was so weak that Melissa rushed him back to the doctor. This time, she mentioned some of Kasen’s lymph nodes seemed swollen. 

“The pediatrician turned and rushed out of the room, and when she came back, she said that she was calling an ambulance to take Kasen to Children’s Medical Center Plano,” Melissa said. “She told me, ‘I think it might be cancer.’ I couldn’t believe it.” 

Within three days, Kasen had started chemotherapy, and he wouldn’t leave the hospital for another four weeks. The leukemia was in more than half of Kasen’s blood, including his spinal fluid. That meant that Kasen would have to undergo three years of chemotherapy treatment and quarterly spinal taps. 

“All I could think about was that my kid was going to have to finish second, third and fourth grade before this was all over,” Melissa said.

But with each update and every new reality, the Plano oncology team was a support system for Kasen and his family. They saw the same nurses and support staff during each visit.  

And the team cared for more than Kasen’s physical symptoms. Child Life specialists came with games and activities for Kasen and his siblings, and a music therapist introduced Kasen to playing the piano.

“The nurses and doctors -- they held us up while we watched Kasen lose his hair and his ability to walk,” Melissa said. “And when Kasen couldn’t run and throw a ball, the piano gave him that same challenge he loved about sports: The more he played, the better he got.” 

And soon, team members at the Plano campus will be able to care for more children like Kasen who live north of Dallas. Last year, the hospital broke ground on an expansion to provide more specialized and world-class care to the rapidly growing North Texas pediatric population.

Upon completion, the building will house additional services and medical treatment capabilities -- such as more specialized care within programs such as cancer and blood disorders -- bringing care closer to home for children who live in Plano and surrounding communities.

“We felt so fortunate to have one of the best pediatric cancer centers in the country in our backyard.”

In May, Kasen finished his last round of chemotherapy, and a month later, he rang the bell signaling the end of his years-long cancer treatment.

And for the first time in years, Melissa let out a sigh of relief.