Summer is very stoic and sometimes quiet, but yet you get her talking and she’ll talk a lot. She’s very goofy with her 2 different best friends! I watch her interact with adults and she really does amazing!! She loves to shop and go thrift shopping. She was great at volleyball, but once she was diagnosed she’s never shown interest again. She’s got a great sense of humor and loves a wide array of movies and music because of her dad’s unique taste in both. She does amazing in school and is a great driver.
She was a volleyball player and would have random aches in her back and legs, but I thought it was from her jumping for 3 days straight or growing pains since she was 13. Then she was tired, running low-grade fevers, and had bad bruising and bleeding gums. Again, she had braces so thought that was why! The thing was that none of the symptoms went together.
After a couple of weeks, we started taking her to the doctor and they ruled out all the usual stuff. They tested her for mono and it was negative, leukemia and mono have a lot of the same symptoms. She was scheduled to get blood work done and we did go get it drawn, but after only a couple of hours of doing so, she was really in pain, and took her to ER. That doctor actually felt like that’s what it was and immediately got us to the children’s hospital. It was unreal.
This changed us more emotionally than anything. Overall we all stayed positive and had an amazing team of prayer warriors that reminded us we were going to be okay. Nearing the end of treatment is almost scarier than the beginning. Fear of it coming back. I went through a trial with a psychologist at the clinic and the one takeaway that I took from it was to stick with the facts. It really helped.
Summer is SO blessed!! I mean she had some really tough stuff during the intense part of treatments, but just turned 16 and is driving herself to school and her new job! She ran for the student of the year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society this year and came in 2nd and won a scholarship ship for college!
Hope session by Natalie Greenroyd Photography | Instagram