Bronsyn had just finished up his 3rd grade year at Frontier Elementary in Brookston, Indiana. On Friday, May 29th, Bronsyn woke up with very swollen eyes. At first, his family thought it might be allergies and started giving him allergy medication. The swelling went away until Tuesday when he woke up and his eyes were almost completely swollen shut.

Thankfully, Bronsyn also got sun burnt on Friday so he didn’t wear a shirt all weekend. When his mom got home from work Tuesday, she noticed the blue veins in his chest were sticking out and his lips were a blue color. She immediately called the doctor and they told her to call Wednesday morning when the office was open. Bronsyn, this whole time, felt fine. He could breathe well and was acting normal so again the family thought he had allergies.

On Wednesday, June 3, his mom called the pediatrician, who immediately advised them to go to the ER. Bronsyn’s eyes were not swollen and he felt fine.

At Franciscan ER in Lafayette, Indiana, testing began right away. A chest X-ray revealed a mass about the size of a baseball under his chest plate. When Bronsyn laid down, the mass was restricting circulation, which caused the swelling in his face.

Due to the seriousness of the situation, Franciscan arranged for emergency transport by ambulance to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. (They shared that if an ambulance hadn’t been available, they would have called a LifeLine helicopter).

By early Wednesday afternoon, Bronsyn was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Riley. From there, additional testing began, including a biopsy of the mass, a bone marrow test, and a spinal tap. Bronsyn was put under general anesthesia and the doctors were very concerned about the mass because it was pushing on his Trachea, Heart and Superior Vena Cava. **Bronsyn funny: he told the nurses and doctors under anesthesia that he had 18 cows as pets. He now has a stuffed animal cow named Riley on his bed.

Later that day, doctors shared that all signs were pointing toward a cancer diagnosis, but they did not yet know whether it was lymphoma or leukemia. To say everyone was shocked is an understatement.

On Thursday, the tests confirmed a diagnosis of T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. That same night, Bronsyn began his first round of chemotherapy.