Pearl Monroe Tucker, or Roe Roe as her family calls her, was 3 years old when she started feeling aches in her legs and her arms.
Her preschool teacher noticed she no longer wanted to go out on the playground. She would wake up in the middle of the night saying her hands hurt or her cheeks hurt.
“Originally we thought it was growing pains,” her mother, Meredith Tucker, says. “We went to the pediatrician multiple times. And they said, ‘No, growing pains don’t last around the clock.’”
Pearl Monroe Tucker, or Roe Roe as her family calls her, was 3 years old when she started feeling aches in her legs and her arms.
Her preschool teacher noticed she no longer wanted to go out on the playground. She would wake up in the middle of the night saying her hands hurt or her cheeks hurt.
“Originally we thought it was growing pains,” her mother, Meredith Tucker, says. “We went to the pediatrician multiple times. And they said, ‘No, growing pains don’t last around the clock.’”
Then, the day came when Roe Roe couldn’t walk and was crawling to get around.
“I knew in my mama gut that something was way off,” Meredith says. “So the doctor recommended blood work.”
Two days later, on Nov. 19, 2019, Meredith and her husband, Chad Tucker, got the results. Her white blood count was through the roof.