Teen who discovered he had leukemia after dental surgery shares update. ‘I beat it’
Wisdom teeth surgery revealed a rare form of leukemia for 16-year-old Tae’von Perry, but now the Texas high school student has shared an update.
“Hey, remember my post about having leukemia?” Tae’Von said in an Instagram post Saturday, May 6. “Yeah well I beat it.”
Tae’Von, a student at Port Neches-Groves High School in southeast Texas, was having the routine dental surgery done in December when he was unable to stop bleeding, according to Port Arthur News.
The extensive bleeding caused him to pass out five times, the publication reported.
He was taken to Baptist hospital in Beaumont and later Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston when his blood work showed concerning numbers, according to KBMT.
“Nobody wants to think that they have cancer,” Tae’Von told the outlet. “So the entire time I kept asking her, I was like, ‘Do I have cancer? Do I have cancer?’ And she was like, ‘Well, we don’t know the results yet.’”
Doctors ultimately discovered Tae’Von had acute promyelocytic leukemia. He began chemotherapy that night, the Port Arthur News reported.
About 600 to 800 people annually in the United States develop acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. It’s caused when “there are too many immature blood-forming cells in the blood and bone marrow,” the National Institutes /of Health’s Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center said.
Symptoms of APL include patients easily bruising, bleeding gums and difficulty stopping wounds from bleeding.
Tae’Von, who according to a GoFundMe is on his church’s worship team and is “very active” in his youth group, said in a Instagram in March his diagnosis was “absolutely” scary.
“But the good thing is, this is a part of my story that I will continue to cherish for the rest of my life,” he said. “Why? Because I believe in a God that is a healer, a father that puts light into my darkness.”
His doctors, according to KBMT, were optimistic about Tae’Von’s recovery. Less than five months after learning he had leukemia, he shared the news he had won his battle.
Tae’Von’s recent Instagram post included the caption #CancerSurvivor, and many of his loved ones celebrated his good news.
“Leukemia?? We don’t know her,” one person commented.
“How incredible!!!! You are an inspiration!!” another person said.
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