Our sweet and spunky Kate Olivia was living an ordinary toddler-hood until the late summer of 2013 when we noticed some excessive bruising on her legs & arms. Kate is adventurous, but certainly not to the extent that she should be bruising as much as she was. It didn’t take long for us to suspect something was up. We took her to her wonderful pediatrician for some simple bloodwork, thinking maybe she had anemia. The very next day, on August 15th, our beautiful 2 year old was diagnosed with high risk Pre-B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. While this is a very treatable type of pediatric cancer, Kate is in for a long road with a treatment schedule of just over 2 years.
Ava was diagnosed with A.L.L. (Leukemia) on Nov.1, 2012. She is currently undergoing treatment at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ. Ava loves Taylor Swift, Sharpei from High School Musical and the NY Giants. She enjoys dancing, cheerleading, making music videos on the iPad and rainbow loom. If she could do anything for a day she would love to be in a real music video.
Ava’s Support Page: Angels for AVA
Hope Session by Antonietta Henry Photography. website | facebook
Gavin was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on March 15th, 2013. He is currently in treatment at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Gavin is also autistic (diagnosed in the summer of 2012) so he doesn’t understand what is going on or that he is sick.
Mathias was diagnosed on May 21, 2011 with ALL/Philadelphia Plus. He was 9 years old. He did all the chemo to get him into remission then started the prep work for a transplant. His brother was a perfect match. He did amazing an was in remission/post transplant when he had a relapse 18 months later in February 2013. Our journey started our, a nightmare!! Mathias was in remission with in a month and was suppose to get ready for transplant when they found a fungal in his liver and lung. Two months of treatment done when we started prep for his second transplant. He’s in transplant now and is doing amazing!!
Hope Session by LinnyJo Designs & Photography. website | facebook
Mimi was diagnosed with leukemia at 1 1/2 years old after a couple days of low fevers. For almost a year, she had inpatient and outpatient chemotherapy a few times a week. Now chemo pills, port pricks and clinic visits are routine events Mimi faces with a smile on her face. She loves art, her neighbors, family and friends and most of all her baby brother. Mimi is so excited for her 4th birthday in just a few days!
Hope Session by Rebecca Hellyer Photography. website | facebook
Cainan was diagnosed with ALL on January 29th 2013. He’d been running a fever for about three weeks with no other symptoms and then we found out why. He is currently in the consolidation phase of his treatment and was recently found to have a low number of chromosomes which now classifies him as very high risk. Cainan has an excellent attitude and smiling through all the treatment! They think his best bet is to do a bone marrow transplant and they thought he would have plenty of donors to choose from however once they look at his matches a little closer they found he was going to be harder to match them they thought so his 10 month old younger brother is going to be the best match for him. Now we are in a waiting game as to how to get Gideon as old as we can while not giving Cainan anymore treatment then is needed.
