Harper can be shy, but once she opens up, she’s so funny & smart. She loves any kind of art, & she loves to cook. Her Make A Wish was to meet Rosanna Pansino from the Nerdy Nummies YouTube channel. She got to decorate cake pops with her and she loved it. She loves to read, especially stories about inspiring women from history. She loves playing Mario Kart & Legend of Zelda. When she grows up she wants to be a chef who runs a camp for kids with cancer to learn to cook.
On July 7th of 2017, Harper was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma. Her leg had started hurting in May and after multiple doctor visits, we still didn’t have a reason why. Eventually she was limping noticeably and waking up in pain at night. Her father is in the Navy and he was away training at the time. He came home at the end of June and by then she had started losing weight from loss of appetite. In retrospect, these are classic symptoms of cancer in children. Over the 4th of July she began having stomachaches and we scheduled her an appointment with her doctor. The night before, her pain became severe so we took her to the ER. They suspected appendicitis & did an ultrasound. Instead, they found a 10cm tumor wrapped around her liver and kidney, and beginning to invade her spinal column.
Harper recently finished chemo, but she has struggled to gain weight & has a feeding tube. She also has some neuropathy in her feet from the chemo drugs that sometimes cause her to limp or trip easily. We aren’t sure yet if the chemo will have any long term effects. In total, Harper has had 40 weeks of chemotherapy, 28 days of abdominal radiation, and 4 surgeries. She has spent over 30 nights in the hospital, & missed her entire 2nd grade year of school. We are very lucky in that she hasn’t had many of the complications that are common for kids going through treatment. We also have excellent insurance, which has been a lifesaver. But, it has been hard juggling Harper’s needs with our 2 younger children, and my husband’s job.
Harper was diagnosed 3 months after we transferred here, & only a week after my husband returned from a 3 month training out of state so we don’t really feel like we’ve had a chance to really start living in Hawaii. Everything has kind of been on hold. Even now that she’s finished active treatment, she has 5 years of scans & blood tests before she’s considered “cured”. There are so many potential late effects from treatment, from infertility to other cancers, that I don’t know that we will ever be able to put this completely behind us.
Hope Session by Kacey Norris Photography | Facebook | Instagram