You might be wondering if structured physical activity is safe or even appropriate when your child is diagnosed with leukemia and is about to undergo rigorous medical procedures like chemotherapy. Physical therapy is safe under the supervision of a professional physiotherapist and is also a crucial component of comprehensive care.
A physical therapist is not supposed to take your child to the limit, but to employ evidence-based methods strategically to maintain and restore their strength, endurance, and coordination. At Suarez Physical Therapy, our pediatric therapists are ready to make your child more resilient. Get in touch with us to know how we can help your child undergoing leukemia therapy in Las Vegas.
An Overview of Childhood Leukemia
It is necessary to understand what childhood leukemia entails before undergoing physical therapy. In this section, you learn the disease's symptoms and its medical therapies. With the knowledge, you understand why physical therapy is crucial in the overall care plan of your child. Physiotherapy is a critical support mechanism that addresses the physical toll of fighting cancer..
What Is Childhood Leukemia?
Leukemia is a cancer in the tissues that make up the blood in the body, specifically the bone marrow, which is the soft, spongy core of your bones. In the case of leukemia in your child, abnormal white blood cells are produced by the bone marrow of the child that fail to mature or properly perform their functions.
These cancerous leukemia cells multiply beyond control, ultimately pushing out the regular and vital blood cells. This excessive population of abnormal cells disrupts the generation of normal cells:
- White blood cells that are required to fight infection
- Red blood cells that are required to carry oxygen
- Platelets that are required to form blood clots
It is this underlying imbalance of the bone marrow that is the immediate cause of most of the physical symptoms and difficulties your child will be facing.
Common Types of Childhood Leukemia
Although leukemia can be of various types, the overwhelming majority of cases in children are acute in nature. The disease develops fast and demands immediate treatment. All you are going to see are the two most prevalent ones:
- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). ALL is the most prevalent type of childhood cancer, which begins with primitive forms of white blood cells known as lymphocytes.
- Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). The second most prevalent type is AML, which starts in the myeloid cells, which eventually develop into other types of white blood cells, red blood cells, or platelets.
Although their medical treatments are different, the supportive role of physical therapy is vital to children with either diagnosis since both have treatments that have an immense impact on the physical well-being of a child.
Signs and Symptoms of Childhood Leukemia
In many cases, the path to the diagnosis of leukemia is initiated by the symptoms that may resemble some common childhood diseases, but continue or increase in severity.
- You might have noticed that your child is feeling extremely tired, and they do not feel better when they rest.
- You may also have found that their skin has changed color and become much paler.
- Recurring and frequent infections and fevers might be an indication that their body is not able to protect itself.
- There may also be evidence of easy bruising or bleeding, including frequent nosebleeds or small red spots under the skin called petechiae.
- Bone or joint pain. This is the pain that is caused by the accumulation of cancerous cells in the bone marrow, and it can be so excruciating that your child will find it hard to walk, run, or even stand, directly affecting their mobility and ability to play.
Major Causes of Childhood Leukemia
The precise cause of the disease in most childhood cases of leukemia is unknown. Scientists know that the disease is caused by a mutation of the DNA of the bone marrow cells, but the mutation tends to occur at random. Therefore, it is not due to anything that you did or failed to do.
Although some inherited genetic disorders may predispose a child, like Down syndrome or Li-Fraumeni syndrome, such instances comprise a negligible portion of the cases. The medical and therapeutic team is not concerned with the unchangeable past, but with the plan of action as it is to be followed in treatment and recovery.
How Doctors Diagnose Leukemia
Diagnosing childhood leukemia is a delicate and thorough task. The path that your child is on must have started with a visit to your pediatrician, who, upon physical examination and listening to your worries, prescribed a blood test known as a complete blood count, or CBC.
This test can show abnormal white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets, and this is the initial clear indication of a problem in the bone marrow. To establish the diagnosis and determine the type of leukemia, your child will undergo a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy by her oncologist.
In this process, a tiny sample of bone marrow fluid and tissue, usually of the back of the hip bone, is obtained and analyzed under a microscope to detect cancer cells.
Standard Medical Treatments for Leukemia
Chemotherapy is the primary treatment of childhood leukemia and involves the use of potent medicines that destroy rapidly growing cells. Chemotherapy takes a long time, in some cases two to three years, and is done in various stages.
In certain instances, treatment can also involve targeted therapy. For example, drugs are used to target specific weaknesses of the cancer cells, or immunotherapy, whereby your child's own immune system is used to combat the cancer. In the case of extremely high risk or recurrent leukemia, a stem cell transplant might be required.
Although these medical interventions are highly effective in combating the disease, they are also highly taxing to the body of your child and have severe physical side effects. This is precisely where physical therapy becomes an indispensable partner in your child's care.
The Vital Role of Early Physical Therapy After a Leukemia Diagnosis
When your child is diagnosed with leukemia, you have a team of healthcare specialists, and the pediatric physical therapist must be one of them at the very beginning. It is not several weeks or months into treatment, when the issues have already appeared, but during the diagnosis time that physical therapy should start.
An early intervention enables a physical therapist to play an active role in the care of your child, creating a vital foundation of their physical capabilities before the most vigorous treatments.
This preliminary assessment maps your child's physical abilities and strengths. The therapist will determine their:
- Muscle strength
- Range of motion in the joint
- Endurance of activities such as walking and climbing stairs
- Balance and gross motor skills as per their age
This background is priceless since it gives us a clear point of reference. Since your child passes through the strenuous periods of chemotherapy, the physical therapist can monitor any changes or deterioration in the child's functionality.
This active observation can be adjusted immediately and intervened in a targeted way to correct the problem when it occurs, instead of letting it develop into a significant problem. This early intervention also allows the stopping or reducing the loss of functionality so that you can ensure that your child retains as much of their physical autonomy and normalcy as they can during the entire treatment process.
How Physical Therapy Alleviates the Side Effects of Leukemia Treatment
The medical therapies necessary to heal leukemia are potent and, to their disadvantage, they are accompanied by a myriad of painful physical side effects. Your child might feel weaker, more exhausted, and might have pain or trouble moving around in a way they have never experienced.
A physical therapist could reverse these effects through evidence-based interventions. The therapist does not merely treat symptoms, but strives to make your child stronger, more mobile, and more comfortable, making the treatment process more bearable.
Fighting Weakness and Cancer-Related Fatigue
Cancer-related fatigue is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. It is not the normal fatigue your child experiences at the end of a hard day of play, but a deep feeling of exhaustion that cannot always be relieved by sleep. It is the result of the disease itself, the chemotherapy, and the anemia that frequently accompanies it.
Professionally directed, light exercise may appear to be counterintuitive, yet it is one of the best remedies for this profound fatigue. On any given day, a physical therapist will create a unique program that is safe and suitable for your child due to their blood counts and energy levels.
Through low-impact exercises involving large muscle groups, we can enhance their efficiency in the cardiovascular system and the supply of oxygen to their tissues. This process is a direct combat of the fatigue at the cellular level, which contributes to the enhancement of their energy and retention of essential muscle mass, which is usually lost during treatment, and the overall enhancement of their stamina to withstand their medical treatments better.
Addressing Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN)
A significant number of chemotherapy agents, most commonly vincristine, have a side effect called chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, or CIPN. You can imagine the nerves in a child's hands and feet as little electric cables that transmit the messages between their body parts and their brain.
When the chemotherapy destroys these nerves, the result is known as CIPN. To your child, it may be numbness, tingling, pain, or weakness in their hands and feet. They can become clumsy, have difficulties with buttons or zippers, or they can walk differently, as in a foot drop, making them more prone to tripping and falls.
The primary intervention in the management of CIPN is physical therapy. The therapist employs specific exercises that will test and enhance your child's balance. For example, the physiotherapist makes the child stand on various surfaces or walk in different patterns. They train the particular muscles in their ankles and feet to make the child walk safely and efficiently.
Moreover, the physiotherapist includes tasks that also stimulate fine motor skills and offer sensory input to the hands and feet, which may aid in re-training the nerves and working better.
Managing Bone and Joint Pain to Keep Your Child Moving
The pain of the bones and joints that leukemia causes can be frustrating to you and your child. This is caused by the overcrowding of the bone marrow with the leukemia cells, which causes pressure on the inside of the bones. This pain can be so great that your child will be unwilling to move, stand, or walk. Immobility will cause the muscles to become stiff and weak, reducing their mobility even more.
The physical therapist treats this pain with a multi-faceted approach that is gentle. The physician applies the range-of-motion exercises, which are well guided, meaning that we assist them in moving their joints in their natural direction. This is a soothing motion that can be used to lubricate the joints, alleviate the stiffness, and eventually lower the pain impulses to the brain.
Your child's physiotherapist's attention is also directed at the strengthening of the muscles surrounding the painful joints because the stronger the muscles are, the better the support is, and the stress on the bones may be reduced. Note that the therapists do not aim to make your child move in pain, but they want to discover safe and comfortable methods to help your child have their body moving.
Keeping Your Child Strong
Although it is essential to discuss the problematic side effects of treatment, the final aim of physical therapy goes way beyond that. They are committed to making your child remain a kid. This is keeping the child's capacity to carry out their daily functional tasks, such as getting out of bed and moving to the kitchen or sitting on the sofa and cuddling. The goal is to keep your child strong, active, and engaged in age-related activities. These activities enhance the feeling of normalcy and self-reliance in a period that is beyond normal.
Tailored Exercise and Therapeutic Play
To children, play is their labor; it is their way of learning, developing, and engaging with the world. An experienced pediatric physical therapist realizes this and uses the power of play to reach the therapeutic objective. Your child will probably feel it is more like a visit to a special playroom than visiting a doctor during a therapy session. Each of the activities is thought through thoroughly.
In the case of a younger child, an activity can be a game of animal walks, with crawling like a bear to develop the necessary strength in the shoulders and core, and hopping like a frog to form the power and coordination in the legs. The therapist could create a cushiony obstacle course and tunnels that would promote motor planning, coordination, and endurance.
With an older child or teenager, treatment might include kicking a soccer ball to practice one-leg stability, doing modified yoga postures to increase flexibility and body awareness, or using resistance bands in the form of a game. The charm of this method is that your child is not bored and is encouraged to develop their power and ability, without it being a burden.
Safe Mobility through Gait Training and Assistive Devices
The capability of a child to walk safely and in an efficient manner is the key to the independence of a child. Physical therapists are specialists in the field of human movement and biomechanics, and we carefully examine how your child walks, a pattern that is known as their gait. Weakness and neuropathy due to leukemia and its treatment may result in this pattern being altered, for example, limping, unsteadiness, or dragging foot. These modifications are not cosmetic in nature and may pose a high risk of falls and harm.
Gait training techniques are used to assist your child in developing a better walking pattern, with emphasis on the strengthening of the right muscles, enhancement of their coordination, and balance. In other cases, an assistive device might be suggested to them to be safe and as independent as possible. It is necessary to perceive these devices not as a manifestation of weakness but as a means of empowerment.
A walker will be able to give your child the stability to walk confidently down the corridors of a hospital or at home, and tailor-made ankle-foot orthoses will be able to hold up a weak ankle and avoid tripping. We do this by making sure that your child is able to move safely and hence remains engaged in the family and social processes, which is essential to their emotional health.
Find a Physiotherapist Handling Children With Leukemia Near Me
Diagnosing and treating childhood leukemia is challenging. As a parent, you are right to be concerned with the medical interventions that lead to your child being in remission. The recovery process entails destroying cancer cells and making the entire child well and strong.
Physical therapy is a significant part of the overall care plan of your child. Whether it is the debilitating side effects of treatment that you must manage or it is merely the simple joys of movement and play, a physical therapist is involved in childhood cancer treatment. Their main objective is to ensure that during the childhood leukemia treatment, your child is physically fit, confident, and can live a healthy and active life.
At Suarez Physical Therapy, the health, stamina, and strength of your child are our number one priority. We can change your child's leukemia experience significantly and permanently. To plan an in-depth assessment and develop a personalized schedule, please call our pediatric physiotherapists in Las Vegas today at 702-368-6778.
