Taylor went to her 4 year old wellness check-up and the doctor thought he felt her liver to be slightly enlarged in August 2016. We were advised to take her to the ER at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Once examined and blood was drawn, it was only a matter of minutes before we were being told that Taylor had cancer. Prior to diagnosis, she never exhibited any symptoms of leukemia or even being anything other than a happy, funny little child. Shock is an understatement to describe how our family of medical professionals felt when we were told she had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. The medical team felt she fit the criteria of being standard-risk at the time of diagnosis and we were reassured that leukemia can be cured, although it requires 2 years and 3 months of chemotherapy treatment. It is broken down into 3 segments (Induction: 1 month, Consolidation/Intensification: 6 to 8 months, and Maintenance: 18-20 months)
Induction therapy began within 2 days.The first bone marrow revealed that Taylor had 96% leukemia cells throughout her body. She had hardly any red blood cells, platelets and a hemoglobin of only 2.3! She was immediately transfused with several bags of blood and platelets. On Day 8, her bone marrow had shown 22% leukemia still in her body. This put her in the very high risk category for her type of leukemia. This means that she is at very high risk of having the leukemia return or regress. On Day 29, she still has not been able to clear the leukemia within her body. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the second part of treatment: Consolidation/Intensification at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in a clinical trial. As her mother, I was so scared for her, and I did not think she could take going through all the pain and suffering from chemotherapy. However, Taylor has truly surprised her whole family and medical team with her strength. She is a fighter and she will continue to fight this cancer until victorious! She loves to laugh and make others laugh, and that is, afterall...life's best medicine.
