Have you ever gotten one of those direct mail pieces
from St. Jude asking for donations? Did you know the kid on the letter?
About a week after we returned home from our
Lighthouse retreat, we got a piece of mail from St. Jude and when I opened it,
I took it to Joe and said, “Isn’t this Abby from the beach?” I messaged her mom
and, yes, it was “Abby from the beach”.
Read the below account of Abby’s diagnosis day. Most
cancer parents will give you a similar story of everything is normal and then
the next day, nothing is normal ever again. That’s what cancer is like.
Diagnosed
with ALL T-cell 6/15/15 two months before her 7th birthday.
Abby is
lucky they have found successful treatments for her specific type of cancer.
However, she has experienced terrible side effects and who knows what other
side effects will show up years from now. Still she is fortunate. Many, many of
our friends have cancers that have not had enough research to find a successful
treatment. As a nine year old, she has already seen more friends die than most
people see in their entire life. They all deserved a cure but we need more
research to find them.
The
beginning of summer break 2015 was great! We were going bowling 2-3 times a
week, swimming, playing every day, and we were expecting a baby girl at the end
of July. My oldest daughter had just graduated high school and I was trying to
spend as much time with her as I could before she left for college.
On June
13 parts of our city and parish were having record flooding but we were on our
way to go bowling. As we were turning the old Toyota Corolla into the bowling
alley we were rear ended by a big truck. The car was totaled but we were all
okay. The doctors didn't believe me when I said I was only having really strong
Braxton hicks contractions and we had to spend several hours in the labor and
delivery unit. Abby laid in the room with me and slept and I noticed she had a
little higher temp than normal.
Two
days later, Monday, June 15, Abby was complaining of her knee hurting so I took
her to the doctor. I almost told her to take some Tylenol and stop complaining.
I am so glad I didn't. 4 hours later I was told she had very progressed
leukemia. Her blood was 93% cancer and I had no idea she was that sick. That
same day, or maybe it was very early the next morning she was airlifted to
Memphis for treatment.
It was
just a normal day and then BOOM everything changed forever.
#Abby
#StJude #tilleryisloved #TILfoundation #alexsmillionmile #GoGold2017
To support childhood cancer research in honor of kids
like Abby, make a donation to our team (TIL Foundation) with Alex’s Lemonade
Stand Foundation. https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/1314958
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