Jillian is a very creative and crafty girl. She loves animals. She loves movies, music and sewing. She is always creating something new whether it be making her own toys or sewing or drawing. Her favourite food is a grilled cheese sandwich. She loves to swim. She is always making us laugh with her funny personality and her sassy ways.

Jillian was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia June 8, 2016. She wasn’t feeling well when I picked her up from school. We ended up at our local hospital in the ER. A few hours later she was rushed by ambulance to the nearest children’s hospital after many blood tests at our local hospital. We were told at the children’s hospital that she had leukemia after some tests done there. That summer was spent in the hospital with her receiving chemo, being in a lot of pain and losing her hair. She lost a third of her body weight and withered down to skin and bones. She was discharged after 40 days. She had to deal with getting her strength back, neuropathy in her feet and other side effects from chemo treatment.

Jillian had not been feeling good for a few weeks prior to diagnosis. She was very tired and complained her legs hurt and had stomach pains. She had a low grade fever which would come and go. We thought it was a flu bug going around. We thought she needed more sleep as she is a night owl. She had what looked like small bug bites or a little rash which now we know were petechiae. A couple days before Jillian was diagnosed she went swimming. She was having trouble catching her breath on the pool deck and when she came out of the pool she had large bruises that appeared on her legs. We thought she got the bruises from learning to dive. Two days later she was not well at school when I picked her up. We ended up going to the ER and she almost collapsed on her way in.

She has been through many rounds of chemo, lumbar punctures, 21 blood transfusions and chemo at the hospital and taking chemo at home. Her port got infected in August 2017 and she got Sepsis. Around the same time she developed PCP Pneumonia. She was sent to the PICU as her lungs kept getting worse and couldn’t breathe. The next day she went for surgery to have her port removed but also the decision was made to intubate her and put her on a ventilator. Jillian remained on life support for 12 days while she received treatment for pneumonia and her lungs recovered. She was hospitalized for a month during that time.

Struggles for our family because of treatment were being in the hospital for long periods of time and not having a normal family life. Living in the hospital life is not easy as a family. The uncertainty of the unknown is very stressful. One day Jillian would feel great and the next she would be very sick.

Cancer has changed our life in many ways. We definitely are going to enjoy life and do more things that we would like to do and not put them off because you don’t know what tomorrow holds. The uncertainty of what the future holds after treatment is unsettling. Knowing there will always be an extra worry as a parent with a child that is going through treatment will also be a stress that is there. Everyday is precious and you realize how quickly your life can change.

No matter how awful Jillian felt she would push herself to do what she needed to do to get better. Whether it was walking the extra step down the hospital hallway or eating the extra bite of food to gain her strength back. She is our tough cookie!

Hope Session by Attimi Photography