Kenshin is a shy quiet boy who loves basketball, beach and iPad games. He’s opposite of his sister Sophia who is outgoing. She loves sports as well and singing. They both adore their youngest brother 2 yr old Seth and a dog pet named Lily.
Early last year, Kenshin was becoming unusually pale and complaining of neck pain. He had some blood test and our GP thought he might just be anaemic. After more than a month of taking iron supplement, his condition didn’t improve and due to having fever without other symptoms we decided to bring him in for another test. That was when it was confirmed he has cancer, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
He had intensive chemotherapy for the past 8 months and will be on maintenance treatment for the next 3yrs. He had various blood tests, a few blood transfusion but has been progressing really well with his treatment and prognosis is really good.
This is a second diagnosis to our family. Our first child was diagnosed with the same type of cancer when she was 3 year old in 2011. Just when we thought our family had survived and overcome cancer- finally we can move on and return to our not so normal life, another diagnosis hit our family. It was devastating and a nightmare all over again. But we have to remain strong for our kids and find meaning behind this struggle. It has made our family bond much stronger and deeper.
Bennett is a sweet laid back kid! His brother Bradley is 5 years old and he makes him laugh the most (except for the ‘rare’ moments they are fighting…. if you have had kids you get it) he loves being outside! He is an adventure seeker!
Our son was only 21 months old at the time of diagnosis- he was not talking too much so he wasn’t able to express how he was feeling. We discovered unusable bruising to his legs, increased fatigue and bleeding gums with flossing and brushing teeth one night, so we brought him in to discover he had cancer of the blood.
For the first 10 months after diagnosis, we spent so many nights in the hospital receiving chemo, spinal taps, blood and platelet transfusions. He has had surgery twice, several scans, bone marrow biopsies, etc. It was the most challenging, draining, and emotional yet of my life! Keeping a 2 yr old content stuck in the hospital – kept this mom on my toes! He now goes in monthly for treatment involving sedated procedure (spinal taps) and iv chemo for the next 2.5 years.
He is immunocompromised, so we have to be careful in crowds. Even a simple virus such as the common cold will land him in the hospital. He has an implanted port in his chest for ease of receiving his chemo, so we have to use caution and try to avoid the area from any trauma.
Cancer has forced us to give up making plans for now! It caused our two income household to be shifted to one so I could care for our son and all of his appts. We have been isolated so much of the time to try minimize germ encounters.
Nora was a happy, healthy toddler a year ago. She was dealing with the usual illnesses that seem to come at the start of the school year, and was having fevers, but nothing alarming. Then, in November of 2017, she started bruising quite easily. It wasn’t until petechiae started appearing that we knew something was wrong.
We brought her to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital and asked for leukemia testing. We just knew. The labs came back confirming the diagnosis. Her platelet and hemoglobin levels were dangerously low, and she required both transfusions and admission. It has now been 11 months since she was diagnosed. Nora is on the high risk protocol for ALL. She is in the maintenance phase of chemo treatment. We have about 1.5 years left of this chemo.
She is so tough! She has a fierce spirit and handles treatment very well. Thankfully, she has had a relatively smooth course so far. Her cancer diagnosis has changed much of our family life. Her complex treatment resulted in us both missing a lot of work, and we decided to make lifestyle changes, including moving from MN to TX, so one of us could quit our job and could stay home with her full-time.
With all the challenges and heartache, this has brought our family together. We feel stronger and more intentional within this new life, our new normal.
Nathan loves music. He plays his ukulele and sings every time he’s on his way to the procedure room for an LP. He’s a big Scooby Doo fan, he loves Goosebumps, superheroes and anything really scary. When admitted he plays pranks on the nurses with toy spiders, whoopie cushions and surprises them with an impromptu snowball fight. He has a wicked sense of humor. He loves video games, swimming and camping. He thinks farts are the funniest things, he’s really all boy.
When Nathan was born he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. They gave me a list of medical risks associated with Trisomy 21, Leukemia being one of them. It was something I feared since the day he was born. Nathan presented with occasional low grade fevers for no obvious reason, night sweats, leg pain, and petechia. I knew what it was before the blood results came back.
Nathan spent over 300 nights in hospital during frontline treatment. He has had many lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirations, port accesses, pokes, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions that caused an allergic reaction, IVIG treatments, a Gtube so he could be nourished, many doses of chemotherapy and antibiotics, he was bed ridden for almost a year. He has slowly regained the ability to walk. He’s gone through all this and he faces every day with a smile. He brings laughter and joy to every day. His resilience is incredible, I am in awe of his strength and character. I am so blessed to be his mom.
Nathan’s diagnosis has been pretty difficult. We’ve missed out on some pretty big milestones for our older children. We’ve had to and still need to keep Nathan pretty isolated to keep him healthy and safe. Big family gatherings have been put off until he is strong enough, so our holidays are pretty quiet. It’s been isolating, Nathan feels it too he keeps asking to go to the hospital for pokes just so he can see others.
It’s been a tough go since Nathan has been diagnosed, but regardless of how bad it’s got he reminds us that laughter is the best medicine and he keeps us laughing every day. He is the strongest, bravest person I know. He’s definitely stronger than me, I’ve cried every night since he’s been diagnosed.
Quinn is such a sweet and sensitive little girl. She is usually very joyful and free spirited. She enjoys playing pretend, singing and making music. She loves her dollies, enjoys playing with her brothers, watching shows on her iPad, and of course loves all things pink, dresses and jewelry. Quinn can get dirty with her brothers but then loves dressing up and being a girly girl. She also loves her friends and will tell you about each and every person she comes into contact with.
Quinn was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on December 21st of 2017. Quinn got ill around Thanksgiving. She was pretty sick (vomit, fever, tired) for days after but then bounced back. Quinn would go to school but she would get very tired and take naps randomly or just fall asleep on the ground. School would call and let us know that Quinn vomited in the hallway or bathroom but she seemed fine each time we would pick her up. I (mom) was away the weekend before Christmas for work and received many texts from Grandma that Quinn was not herself and was very lethargic and sickly looking. We knew we needed to bring her to the pediatrician but being around Christmas, things were very hectic. When I picked her up from school one day, I noticed a huge bruise on her leg and her teacher said that she got that during music class. The bruise was very alarming. Her teacher also mentioned that Quinn had zero energy and couldn’t even get up on the stool. At that point, I knew something was up and proceeded to call her doctor. We went to her pediatrician where they checked her bruises, and took her hemoglobin levels. When the levels came back at a 3.6, we quickly found ourselves at Lutheran General with a possible “cancer” diagnoses.
Quinn has been through various amounts of treatments and procedures. She has received multiple spinals, a few bone marrow procedures, countless chemo treatments, weekly port access, home treatments, home medications, and more. Treatment can be difficult with work, school, and life schedules. During the summer, we needed to get babysitters for Quinn’s brothers since having all three at the hospital was beyond stressful. It got difficult when Quinn reacted poorly to certain medications and treatments.
Quinn has been incredible and such a trooper through this whole process for the past nine months. She has been living a pretty normal life despite having cancer. She can’t do anything with physical contact with her power port in and when she does get treatment she becomes very lethargic and sick. So, in that case, she becomes limited in what she wants to do and limits our daily activities as well. Quinn stopped going to PreK last year due to her diagnosis. That was very hard for her since she loves to be with her friends, however, she was able to start Kindergarten last week!
These past nine months have been eye-opening and challenging but also have really focused our minds and hearts on Jesus as we continue to navigate these waters. Normal life responsibilities were put on hold for awhile as our main focus had been Quinn. But, as treatments became more routine and everything slowly became our new normal, we started adding back various responsibilities that we put off. While Quinn’s cancer diagnoses changed a lot, we do try to keep some sort of normalcy for all of us so that her cancer does not consume our minds and doesn’t always become the focus of our daily walk, especially for Quinn’s brothers.
Quinn IS A fighter for sure. This girl is the strongest person we know and continues to battle each and every day. She continues to amaze her doctors and nurses every single week with her progress and overall demeanor in the clinic. They LOVE Quinn at LGH and LGH has become like family to us. Our baby girl surprises us daily. This girl is going to move mountains when she is older. God truly has an incredible plan for our Quinny Q, and we are glad we have a front row seat to see it.
Isahbelle is full of laughter and smiles. She has the most beautiful dimples. Her hair is growing in so beautifully. She LOVES glitter , unicorns, and rainbows. She loves her husky named Jaxx and she loves her family with all of her heart as we do her. She is very bright and special.
In February of 2017, Isahbelle was diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. There weren’t many symptoms other than bruising and petechiae all over her body. Treatment includes a little over two years of chemotherapy treatment . She went into a complete remission 1 month after starting treatment and has not had very many limitations others than needing to remain more isolated when her counts are low.
Cancer has changed our lives in many ways. Our family as a whole loves more deeply. We don’t take anything for granted. Each day is special for us. Isahbelle has been the light of my life her whole life. It hurts so badly to see what she goes through, but I see the warrior she is and it truly amazes me how brave and strong she is.
