Abigail (AbiGrace) is very social and concerned about others’ feelings. She will tell you she is a superhero as much as she is a princess. Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She loves to help, ride her bike, have tea parties, and play with unicorns and mermaids. You will often find her dressing up in costumes.
Abigail was diagnosed at Our Lady of the Lake hospital with Leukemia on September 10, 2019. We were then flown to St. Jude in Memphis arriving there in the very morning hours of 9/11/2019. It is there that we learned the type of Leukemia that she had – T-cell ALL.
Roughly a month before she was diagnosed, she had an ear infection and low-grade fevers that wouldn’t go away. We would alternate between Tylenol and Motrin for the fever and ear pain, which would help temporarily. We had noticed a little more fatigue than normal but attributed that to the ear infection just not making her feel great. When she was feeling good, she would be playing, riding her bike, and fishing with her Dad. She had just started playing soccer and went to her one and only day of preschool. The night before she was diagnosed, she had started vomiting and throughout the night became lethargic. We got her dressed as soon as her Dad got home from work and I took her in to see the pediatrician. I knew she was dehydrated, but I was not expecting anything other than that. Our doctor did labs immediately and then sent us to the hospital for further testing. We arrived at the hospital just before 10 am and by 11 pm Abigail and I were being flown to St. Jude.
Abigail has had multiple blood and platelet transfusions, bone marrow aspirates, and lumbar punctures with intrathecal chemotherapy over the last two years and seven months. She is now in long-term maintenance and gets weekly labs, chemotherapy, and takes an oral chemotherapy pill every night.
Abigail has a brother that is not quite two years older than her. We were very blessed that my parents were able to help out with our older son. He had just started kindergarten when Abigail was diagnosed. They were able to help keep things as routine as possible for him and brought him to see us every few weeks. With them taking care of our oldest, my husband could continue with his normal schedule of working nights and he’d come visit us every 10 days.
Abigail’s cancer diagnosis has brought us all closer together. It’s been a very long 2 years and 7 months, but she is due to ring the end of treatment bell in eight weeks. We are really looking forward to closing this chapter. It will forever be part of our story though.
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