Mia is shy at first but opens up quickly. She loves animals, swimming, and family time. She laughs most when someone does something silly or she makes jokes. She loves to draw, and paint, and her new hobby is sewing.
Mia was diagnosed with Leukemia on New Year’s Day in 2021. In the time leading up to her diagnosis, she had a few small nosebleeds and we noticed large bruises with no apparent cause. The final nosebleed was difficult to stop and she was as white as a ghost. That is what sent us to the emergency room.
Mia has been through respiratory treatments, physical therapy, and counseling for anxiety and the effects of treatment. She also often has pain in her ankles as a side effect of chemo. I had to stop working to be able to tend to her needs and medical appointments. We are now a one-income household.
Mia has poor endurance and requires rest periods. We can’t go places as we used to. She can’t go to the beach and we can no longer explore the parks or hike because she can’t tolerate the heat and the exercise. The amount of time spent in the hospital has taken attention away from our other two children, disrupting their childhood.
Mia has always given back to others since being sick. She collected over $1,000 in art supplies to donate to her local hospital. For childhood cancer awareness month she sold yard signs to help raise awareness for pediatric cancer.
Amador (aka Baby Shark) is 4 years old and enjoys dressing up as his favorite superheroes, playing soccer, and dancing to his favorite songs. Amador recently became a big brother in February 2022, and he loves hugging and playing with his little sister Camila. Before Camila was born Amador was the youngest of all his cousins and his love of the viral song Baby Shark gave him his nickname; he is called Baby Shark by all his family, friends, and classmates at Preschool.
Amador was diagnosed with Leukemia on April 7, 2022. Before his diagnosis, Amador was an energetic 3-year-old who had never had any major health issues. The few months before he got diagnosed, Amador had been getting sick with a lot of coughs and/or colds. He also complained of some leg pain and he started taking naps more frequently.
Amador has had many Lumbar Punctures where he has to be put to sleep. He has also had chemotherapy treatments and he has to take medicine at home every day.
Our whole life has changed with his diagnosis. His sister was only 6 weeks old when we found out. We also had to move to Seattle and live at the Ronald McDonald house for a few months. Despite all the obstacles Amador continues to smile every day. He is always so positive and happy.
Hallie is the sweetest. Loves and cares for all animals and wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She loves Star Wars (specifically Chewbacca) and Stitch.
Hallie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on October 18th of 2021. Prior to diagnosis, she was having migrating pain all over her body. The doctors told us it was just a bacterial infection and it would go away- the pain got so bad that she couldn’t walk. We finally found a doctor that started checking for random things and eventually we were admitted to Children’s in Milwaukee where they ran a whole bunch of tests. In a last-ditch effort to figure out what was going on, they tested her bone marrow and found out she had leukemia
Hallie has had lumbar punctures, port placement surgery, and various medications. Her cancer diagnosis has been a huge adjustment for our family.
Jonah is funny, creative, and so cool! He loves music, drawing, video games, and riding on his scooter. He can make anyone laugh. He is also wise beyond his years and so mature for his age.
Jonah was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on July 25th of 2020. Jonah kept getting sick and testing positive for things like strep throat and ear infections. In between those bouts of sickness, he had other symptoms like high fevers, vomiting, and pain in his legs. He was seen by many doctors, but the cancer was not caught for months. Finally, after blood work, he was diagnosed and started his journey to beat cancer!
Jonah went through 8 months of very intense chemotherapy and another 18 months of maintenance chemotherapy. He developed a blood clot from his PICC line and the chemo required blood thinner shots twice a day for months. He was hospitalized for covid-19 and on oxygen for about two weeks. He was hospitalized another time for a very specific and serious type of fungal pneumonia called PJP where he also required oxygen for a week and had multiple procedures for that. Overall, Jonah’s body has responded well to chemotherapy and he is set to finish chemo at the end of September 2022!
Cancer has changed things for us. I (mom) have not been able to work for the majority of Jonah’s treatment which means we have been very tight on money for the past couple of years.
Rahma is sassy and loves to play with baby dolls and kitchen toys. She also loves to paint and color.
Rahma was diagnosed with leukemia in August of 2021. It has been a year now and we are still in treatment. We have 2 more years of chemo left.
Rahma has had chemo and weekly LPs. She has a port, and is more prone to infections due to the fact that she has trisomy 21. She is also more sensitive to chemo than children her age with the same diagnosis without trisomy 21.
Sarah loves Jesus. She’s happy and creative. She loves to sing and write songs. She’s beautiful and loves the colors mint green and gold.
On January 1, 2022, Sarah woke me up before the sun came up with complaints of a sore throat. Over the next twelve days, she saw three different doctors and tested negative for strep, Covid, flu, and mono. Looking back, I realize that she had been complaining that brushing her hair hurt very badly and that was because her lymph nodes were swollen.
Sarah had to spend 35 days inpatient at the beginning of treatment because of a fungal infection. She has also developed migraines that we have to control by medicine and diet. We began an intense treatment on 08-05 that could cause some muscle decline and should make her lose her hair again.
Every day is different now. Sarah’s older sister is struggling with feeling unimportant and her younger brother is afraid to be alone now. Cancer has emotionally affected everyone.
