Cameron was diagnosed with leukemia on May 9, 2023. He went from playing soccer in the front yard with his siblings and cousins into a hospital room for 30 days. He is on his 4th of 5 rounds of chemotherapy. For each round, he is in the hospital for about a month. He has a week at home in between each round.
Our family is rarely all together and my other kids can’t see their brother. He often makes other children smile and ‘have fun’ during their hospital stays.
Isabella had just turned a year old and stopped wanting to walk along furniture and instead went back to crawling. She had fevers on and off that the doctors and I thought was just from teething. She caught strep when her older brother started pre-k and I thought to show her doctor a new “rash” on her wrists as we were leaving with her antibiotic script. The whole appointment turned upside down and he sent us straight to the children’s hospital next door.
Isabella has had countless transfusions and spinals. She gets chemo at the hospital through her port she had to have placed before she started treatment and she takes daily chemo at home also.
Our girl isn’t verbal but she is great at getting her point across and letting you know what she wants. She loves to dress up like a princess and loves anything Disney. She will cuddle all day but loves to climb and play outside with her brothers when she has the energy.
Juliana was diagnosed with ALL on April 26, 2022. She was having a lot of pain in her arms and legs as well as low-grade fevers. After our 3rd trip to the pediatrician, they ordered labs which revealed leukemia.
She is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Juliana had a stroke last November as a result of one of her chemos. She has suffered a lot of pain and many hospitalizations. She is a very tough little girl and has a positive attitude.
We have had some hard times throughout this journey, one being me having to take so much time off of work. It has taken a toll on us financially.
Our family life is one day at a time. We do not plan many things because we’ve had so many hospitalizations. This has made our family closer at some times but quite taking at the same time.
Juliana is more than cancer. She’s incredibly smart (way wiser beyond her years), kind, and strong. We are so proud to be her parents.
Faith was sick for a long time before diagnosis. She constantly had respiratory issues, abdominal pain, and random swelling in her body. She had constant ear infections and pains that were not explained. I went to different doctors, and she progressively got worse. Finally, after two weeks of ER visits, I had enough. Faith has a swollen lip, ear infection, and gastro infection and was fighting a virus all at the same time. I went to a different hospital outside the city and told them something was wrong and needed their help. They ran a blood test, and we found out the next day.
Faith has had surgery to put in a venous port; it’s connected directly to her heart for the treatment. She has had about 12 lumbar punctures (chemo through her spinal fluid after they collect some of the liquid for cancer).
I can no longer work because Faith is high risk, and I do not want to risk her becoming more ill from viruses and the potential for them to be life-threatening. My church raised some money to help me financially for the time being. Her father left for a while after discovering the news. He has left us on this journey alone. My parents and sisters have become closer and very helpful during this time.
Mila was diagnosed with ALL in April of 2021. She had a low-grade fever and swollen lymph nodes. She has had chemo, and hospital stays, and developed a fungal infection which required a month’s hospital stay in isolation.
Mila is finished treatment in July of 2023 and we would like to do a photo shoot then to commemorate the occasion!
In the spring of 2023, Daxton was very fatigued, falling asleep, had decreased appetite, unexplained bruising, and petechiae. He was later diagnosed with ALL.
He has chemo 4-5 days a week, traveling to the children’s hospital 50 minutes away one way. He’s been admitted for 11 days. His port wouldn’t heal so it needed to remove it and place another one. He’s had steroids and many lumbar punctures.
He also has a 19-month-old little sister who has a rare blood disorder and is transfusion-dependent every 4-6 weeks so she has a port like him.
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