On the night of April 12, 2017, we had eaten dinner as a family. Kinsley didn’t eat much but she was acting like her normal self. She was running around and dancing. After she got out of the bath that night we noticed her left side was bulging out and as hard as a rock. We took her to urgent care where they did an X-ray and saw she had a mass in her belly. We were then sent to the ER where they did an ultrasound and gave us the news that she had a Wilms Tumor. The hospital we were at did not treat this so they sent us via ambulance to the children’s hospital. On April 14th, she had her left kidney and tumor removed and her port placed. She had to recover at the hospital for a week before we were able to come home.
She started chemo on May 1st. She was amazing throughout chemo and radiation. She was often dancing and singing through it all. She loved going to see the nurses and play with the child life specialists. She only got sick a few times. She ran a fever twice and ending up staying in the hospital both times for a few days. She really was amazing through it all.
We both missed quite a few days of work. Kinsley couldn’t go to preschool anymore. My parents are retired and live close by. They watched Kinsley during the week and even took her to many of her appointments so that my husband and I could keep working. At the time of diagnosis Kinsley’s younger sister was 16 months old. It was hard to be away from her. We tried to keep her life as normal as possible. We were so lucky throughout this whole journey that we had family to help with our girls.
Kinsley finished chemo on November 27th. Her final scans were all clear and she rang the bell on December 18th. We are so excited that she is back in school!
Hope session by Jennifer Sue Photography | Facebook | Instagram