Aubrey is one tough cookie. She is very stoic. She has been a fighter from the beginning which showed in her NICU days. She loves singing and dancing, especially Moana. We listen to the soundtrack all day. She loves bubbles and any kind of crafts, liking painting and drawing. She loves her big brother and playing with her sister.
Aubrey started going to the potty very frequently and had a few nights on bed wetting, which was very usually for her. We took her to the pediatrician thinking that she just had a UTI. Her pediatrician was just doing a routine abdomen examine and felt what he thought was either an enlarged liver or constipation. He sent Aubrey for an abdominal x-ray. The next day he called and said there was some stool there, gave us a regimen to clear the stool, and said to see him back in a week. We took Aubrey back for her follow up appointment in a week and her pediatrician still felt a lump. He looked at me and said “I really think this is her liver.” The next day he scheduled a ultrasound of her liver. He called us the next day with the results and gave us the devastating news that Aubrey had a mass in her liver and we needed to go to the Children’s Hospital.
Aubrey is an ex-26 week preemie that weighted only 1 lb and 10 oz. We found out that there is an association with hepatoblastoma and micropreemies (babies born weighing least than 1000gm.
Aubrey had her tumor resection on May 8th which removed 50% of her liver. Aubrey’s tumor is grade 3 which puts her in the intermittent high risk. 30% of her tumor was made up of small cells which are an aggressive form of hepatoblastoma.
Aubrey started her first round of chemo on May 21st. She has unable to complete the round due to an abscess that formed around her resection area. She had it drained and still has a drain in place. Aubrey will have 6 rounds of chemo over the next 18 weeks.
I’m her mom, Mikeon. I’m a pediatric nurse at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where Aubrey is receiving her care and treatment. It is very hard being on the other end of the patient’s bed.
We are a family of 6. Aubrey has an 2 older brothers (Malik -16 and Tyler – 11) and an older sister (Madison – 5). Our family has been split between family that had been gracious to help us during this time because Aubrey has been in the hospital for 31 days.
From the beginning, Aubrey spent 11 weeks in the NICU fighting to stay in this world and she will continue to fight!
Hope session by Kaleen Enke Photography | Facebook | Instagram