WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Eli's Story: A young boy's battle with cancer

Reported by Mike Thompson

Eli's Story: A young boy's battle with cancer

Reported by Mike Thompson 
Email: mikethompson@wkbt.com

Six year old Eli Pedretti is a typical first grader.  Whether he's tooling around on his bike or humming away on one of his harmonicas, he's not one to sit still.  Eli's mom Katie says, "normally, he's very go, go, go."  But for the past four months or so, nothing has been normal.  His life changed back in June.  "He had been sick for about 3 weeks, we had taken him to the doctor and they even tested him for strep and that kind of stuff, everything was negative."  Eli got better, but quickly went downhill again. 

This time his mom knew something wasn't right. "He did nothing, but sleep for 2-3 days, so I took him that monday and they did a whole bunch of tests, everything came back negative, influenza, lyme's, all that stuff."   But further testing did show something abnormal.  That's when Eli's doctor called for a meeting.  "We knew it wasn't good, but like I said, I though it was going to be lyme disease or something, and their dad works on the road and asked if he could make it in," says Katie.  On June 23rd, doctors diagnosed Eli with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, a type of blood cancer. 

"In just a matter of weeks, all of the sudden, it was a shock, total shock," says Katie.  One week an active, full-of life six year old.  A few weeks later, a young boy fighting the battle of his life.  Katie says, "I don't know if you can put it into words really, you have to deal with it, and you have to stay strong and deal with it or I mean you have to be there for your child."  Eli started treatment almost immediately and it took it's toll on his small body.  A difficult transformation for any parent to watch their child go through.  Katie says, "it was really hard to watch him before.  When they start treatment, he was on steroids for 28 days so he was very puffy and didn't look anything like him." 

If watching your child fight cancer wasn't enough, Katie found out the insurance company won't cover a drug doctors say Eli needs for his treatment.  A decision they're appealing.  "I think estimated, it's $80,000 for 8 to 10 shots," says Katie.  Although Eli is on the road to recovery, he still has a long road ahead of him.  Katie says, "treatment last 3 1/2 years for boys his age, technically he was in remission after 8 or 14 days, but treatment just lasts that long."   The prognosis for Eli looks great and it's his will, his determination to beat this disease, that's an example for all of us.  "Tto see the resiliency of them, it's kind of like you're 6 year old is your role model, says Katie.