Summer is so special and so unique! She’s an old soul with a wonderful sense of humor! Funny faces and funny words make her laugh. She loves Wild Kratts, Xavier Riddle, Paw Patrol, and Miraculous.
She had nearly every symptom of Leukemia before a doctor was finally willing to order bloodwork. She was diagnosed on December 21, 2017.
Cancer has changed every aspect of our lives…physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. I can’t imagine that we’ll ever be the same.
She’s had 2 surgeries, about 20 spinal taps, and 2 years and 2 months of chemo. This session marked the end of treatment for her!
Ali is happy and loving to everyone around her. She is a light. She loves all animals especially cats.
Ali had fought for 5 years and has had 5 relapses. She has had chemotherapies, full-body radiation, a bmt, and two car-t therapies. She is currently undergoing her 3rd car-t.
Cancer has brought us a community we didn’t know about. Friendships we cherish. And broken hearts beyond repair. This is Ali’s 5th fight against cancer and we know her time left on earth is limited.
Sammy Leigh is a 6-year-old girl born with Down syndrome. She was born pre-mature and had the odds stacked against her. Fortunately, Sammy never got the memo. As a newborn, she fought to defy the odds set against her. After a few weeks in the NICU, she went home to start her new life with her family.
After years of physical therapy, she went from having almost no muscle tone to running, jumping and climbing like any normal child. In January of 2018 at the age of 4 years old, Sammy was diagnosed with Childhood Leukemia. Again, odds were stacked against her life. Again, she didn’t get the memo.
Because of her Down syndrome, she was instantly placed on the High-Risk road of chemo treatments. After 2 years of chemo infusions, spinal taps, 3 port placement surgeries, blood transfusions, multiple ER and hospital stays we are finally coming to an end of the road. Her End of Treatment date is in May of 2020, shortly after her 7th birthday.
She has continued to defy the odds set against her. Sammy is one of the greatest fighters out there and definitely our favorite. Through all of the hell she has been through she never gives up. She always fights her hardest and still has a smile on her face most days.
Hope session by Shelby Leigh Photography | Facebook
Angel was diagnosed in April of 2017 with B Cell ALL. Angel started with headaches, a stomach bug, and constipation as signs that something was off. The doctor thought it was a stomach bug but her eyes turned yellow. We went to the ER for blood work and were told she had leukemia. We were transferred to CHOA by ambulance and got a full diagnosis there.
Angel completed treatment in August of 2019. We are waiting for neurologic testing. She does suffer from panic attacks in crowds, anxiety attacks when she has a change in routine or something new to deal with. She also can’t do a normal schedule for school so she is in a special program at high school to complete her classes.
Angel has always remained strong and kept a strong attitude. She has been through a lot between cancer and some personal issues family. She has goals for her life and is working hard to accomplish those goals.
Jack is a very thoughtful 8-year-old. He takes a minute to warm up to people, but will very quickly start talking your ear off about Pokémon, or rocks, or his dog Eevee. He is silly and feels intensely. He has a newfound interest in geology and has rock collection he is very proud of.
Jack was diagnosed with ALL in May 2017. He was diagnosed with JPA in December of 2017.
For ALL, Jack had extreme pain in his leg. At first, we thought he had growing pains. Then it got to the point where we couldn’t touch him without him crying out in pain so we took him to the ER thinking he had a fracture. They did bloodwork to rule out a blood infection and found blasts in his bloodwork.
His JPA was asymptomatic, we found it by chance. Jack had a reaction to one of his ALL chemotherapy medications that resulted in abnormal neurological behavior. We took him to the ER because he was non-responsive but awake. The neurological issues turned out to be Methotrexate toxicity, a side effect of chemo treatment. But when the doctors ran an MRI to confirm this diagnosis they found an unrelated tumor near Jack’s brain stem.
Jack has been in treatment for just over 2 years and has 8 months left for ALL. He went from intense weekly chemotherapy in the first 9 months of treatment to one a month treatment for maintenance.
The JPA was partially removed in December of 2017, but the doctors were not able to remove it all because of its location in relation to his brain stem. Because he is in treatment for ALL we have been unable to treat his JPA further. We are monitoring the JPA with regular MRIs. We will see how the tumor behaves once ALL treatment is over to see if we need to do anything else in treating his JPA. So far only small fluctuations have been seen.
Oliver is a firecracker! He loves being the center of attention and he loves to dance and listen to music. He’s obsessed with Peppa Pig and loves Elmo too. He lights up every room he is in, even the nurses at the children’s hospital fight over who gets to take care of him when we are there.
In the spring of 2019, Oliver stopped walking and then had very swollen lymph nodes. We thought the two were unrelated but they were both symptoms of his leukemia. He was officially diagnosed on April 11th, 2019.
He’s on his FINAL round of chemo and he’s been to hell and back. We are mostly hermits these days because he has struggled with almost no immune system his whole treatment. He’s finally starting to recover and bounce back. Our whole lives revolve around getting him better, I don’t know what “normal” is anymore.
This journey has made us stronger. Oliver has Down syndrome so we are accustomed to bring a strong, tight-knit family for him and this has just brought us even closer and stronger.
I watch Oliver fight twice as hard as everyone else to do everyday tasks. It took him so long to walk, he’s still mostly non-verbal, and now he’s had to fight cancer, but he never stops smiling. He’s amazing!
