Diagnosis and the first 20 days
Four weeks before Christmas Abbye had strep throat, with antibiotics she was symptom free in no time. However, she was never quite back to good health. It would seem for a few days her spirits were low and then the next few days it was like being sick never happened. Given that she was in daycare I often assumed it was viral and something she had just picked up from daycare. After awhile, when my hectic schedule started to simmer down at school, I realized if what she had was viral then Ben and I surely should have caught something by now,which leads up to Dec 23rd 2010. I took Abbye to a local clinic where the doctor ordered blood work which we had taken that afternoon. The following morning, Dec 24th- Christmas Eve, while cooking a turkey dinner my phone rang. It was the clinic doctor. He informed me not to panic but Abbye was severally anemic and her white blood cell (WBC) were very low and I needed to take her to the ER ASAP! So off we went to the hospital. Within a few hours her pediatrician had calmly taken me aside to tell me his suspicious, ones I had already come to after the phone call from the doctor. We were most likely facing a case of Leukemia. We were then transferred to McMaster Children's hospital in Hamilton, On. On Dec 28th, after several tests including a bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy, our definate answer had arrived. She had leukemia- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) to be exact.
We remained in the hospital for two weeks after that. Abbye began her chemo treatments and then on Jan 10th, 2011 we were finally discharged. We spent a few days at home preparing for the move back in with my parents and spending time with family. Our stay was cut short when Abbye developed a fever on Jan 15th at 11am. We then had to rush her back to Mac.
Somehow my poor little girl had developed a staph infection in her port-catheter (a tube surgically attached to the central venous system by the heart), she also, as a lovely side effect of the chemo developed mouth sores and thrush. So here we sit for the next two weeks while meds help to make my little girl feel better only for us to commence phase 3 of treatment which starts with a one week stay in hospital, so for the next three weeks we can be found at the hospital, her recovering and me wondering exactly when this all became my reality.
