Click the above image for a PDF design of a day in the life of one hospitalized boy.

Matthew Maddux Cleveland, 18 months old, has an 80 percent chance of beating cancer. This is not his first fight for life. For the past two months, his family's main residence has been a variety of rooms at All Children's Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House East in St. Petersburg.

From the beginning Matthew has not been well. Four hours after his birth, he was rushed from his hometown of Sarasota to All Children's Hospital for specialized treatment. Doctors found three holes in his heart. His mother, Vanessa Maddux, now 20, was hospitalized more than an hour away after her emergency Cesarean surgery. It kept her away from her child for four days.

After three weeks Matthew was strong enough to go home. After that, Maddux said Matthew had to see a cardiologist every five to six months. "Matthew was healthy till about two months ago," Maddux said. "We took him to the ER in Sarasota. They did a bunch of tests and said he had leukemia."

Maddux and her mother, Patricia Fay, 55, returned to the Ronald McDonald House East, a few blocks from All Children's. "It's nice to be here but it's not home," Maddux said.

The Ronald McDonald House charges the family $2 a day to stay and provides food and facilities, allowing them to focus on Matthew's recovery. When they were unable to stay in the house, they paid $280 a week to stay in a hotel.

If Matthew is released as an outpatient without an appointment the next day, the family is not allowed to stay at the Ronald McDonald House and must seek out other arrangements. Every day is a challenge, Fay said. "You can't plan what will happen."

Maddux said she took so much time off to be with her son, she lost her job. She has been thinking of moving to St. Petersburg and has begun seeking employment at the hospital in hopes of being near her son.

Maddux said she tries not to worry. But as a mother, it is hard not to.

"Everything is tiring. ... Eight hours at the hospital feels like 13."