Kids Cancer Crusade
Every Child's Smile is Beautiful; The Smile of a Child With Cancer is Inspirational.

Diagnosis:
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)

Kayla's Story:

            On Friday, June 8th our lives were changed forever. We received the phone call that is every parent’s worst nightmare. Our pediatrician was on the phone telling us that our beautiful little girl, Kayla, who just celebrated her 4th birthday in April, had Leukemia and we had to get to Children’s Hospital within two to three hours. We immediately took her to CHOP and were told to sit and someone would be right with us. A few minutes later, a nurse came and brought us to a room where we were greeted by a doctor.

It was confirmed that Kayla had High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and that we would be living at CHOP for the next few weeks. Everything else from that moment on is a blur. We spent the next 35 days watching our little girl slowly begin to look like a cancer patient. Although they were able to get her into Remission by the 3rd week, she was already losing her hair, getting sick from the chemotherapy and had lost 10% of her body weight. Due to her extreme weight loss, a feeding tube was placed to allow her the nutrition she needed. Her sprits were very low at this point.

On July 11th we were finally able to take her home. We were told that she would be in treatment (mostly outpatient) for the next 2 ½ years.   The next several months were very hard on her little body.  Being treated as an outpatient, we sometimes spent three days a week at clinic.  More often than not we were there from 8 AM to 5PM.  Although the chemotherapy she was getting was in very high doses, she seemed to tolerate it pretty well.  She continued to keep the feeding tube in for longer then we had hoped.  It was however much easier to give her medicine this way and we knew she was getting a good amount of nutrition.   We were told that December and January would be particularly hard months for her and to expect for possible hospital admissions. 

On January 12, 2008, Kayla had some belly pain and a low grade fever.  Fevers are what the doctors worry about most, because of the possibility of infection.  We took her to CHOP, ER and were sent home after what seemed like forever.  We were told what to watch for.  The next day, she continued to have belly pain and a low grade fever.  We went to the ER again that night and were admitted.  After several blood test, ultrasounds, a cat scan and an MRI, which were all new to us and Kayla, they were able to come up with a diagnosis.  Kayla had a very rare side effect of one of her chemo meds.  She had VOD.  Veno Occlusive Disease.  This side effect occurs in 1% of patients.  We spent the next month in the hospital while she worsened and required oxygen and was unable to get out of bed due to the size of her stomach.  VOD causes the belly to fill with fluid. 

We were discharged from the hospital on February 7^th 2008.   A few days later we went to clinic for a follow-up.  Her counts came back great and we were able to start the next and last phase of chemo called Maintenance, which will continue for about two years.  It is much lower doses of chemo.  This is the phase that all Cancer parents say “You get your kid back.  They were right.  She is back.  Vibrant, happy, healthy and dancing just like she did before she was diagnosed.

~Written by Susan, Kayla's mom

Visit Kayla's Website

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Past Featured Children
May 2007 ~ Emily K. ~ Wilm's Tumor
June 2007 ~ Donavynn C. ~ Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
July 2007 ~ Jenna M. ~ Diffuse Intramedullary Fibrillary Astrocytoma
August 2007 ~ Adi V. ~ Neuroblastoma
September 2007 ~ Gavin C. ~ Infantile Fibrosarcoma
October 2007 ~ Angel P. ~ Clear Cell Sarcoma
November 2007 ~ Makade T. ~ Hepatoblastoma
December 2007 ~ *Angel* Tanner L. ~ Ewing's Sarcoma
January 2008 ~ Kirsten S. ~ Osteosarcoma
February 2008 ~ Sinjin A. ~ Burkitt's Lymphoma
March 2008 ~ Zachary G. ~ Rhabdomyosarcoma
April 2008 ~ Mikayla C. ~ Retinoblastoma
May 2008 ~ No Featured Child
June 2008 ~ *Angel* Julian A. ~ Medulloblastoma
July 2008 ~ Makenna S. ~ Germ Cell Tumor
August 2008 ~ Tyler H. ~ Ganglioblastoma
September 2008 ~ No Featured Child
October 2008 ~ Brock W. ~ Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor
November 2008 ~ Trey D. ~ Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma & Choroid Plexus Carcinoma
December 2008 ~ No Featured Child

Note : If you would like your child and their story to be featured and your family is already a part of Kids Cancer Crusade, please simply email information similar to the above. One of the goals, beyond honoring the children, is to make others more aware of the different types of childhood cancers. For this reason, a cancer will not be repeated until the others are featured.