On July 12, 2017 our lives changed forever. Our sweet smart beautiful 19 month old daughter, Leila was rushed to the emergency room after a visit at an after hours pediatrician, for what we were told a couple days earlier was constipation. We were admitted that night and were told she has cancer, stage 4 Neuroblastoma. This terrible disease already had spread to her liver but thankfully had not spread to her bone marrow or bones.
After 23 days and all kinds of testing including one round of chemo, we were able to finally go home. Being at home is always short lived though. We now have a second home, our little room on the oncology floor of Arnold Palmer Hospital and for the past year we have shared our time between our two homes.
Leila has had 5 rounds of chemo, a tumor resection, 2 stem cell transplants, 12 rounds of radiation and just completed 5 rounds of inpatient immunotherapy. She has one month of Accutane. Once she completes that she will still do 2 years of DFMO which is a clinical trial for relapse prevention.
Leila’s support page | Instagram
Hope session by Lisa Lotter Photography | Facebook