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December of 2000,
Taylor was to be the "ring princess" in my best friend,
Paige Prince's wedding in Tyler, Texas. She was 3½ years old. We
drove to Tyler that Thursday, and on Friday morning, both Taylor and
her sister, Tristyn, were not feeling well. We, of course, wanted
Taylor to be well for the wedding the next day, so we took them both
to a clinic in Tyler. Taylor was diagnosed with an ear infection and
Tristyn, an upper respiratory infection. They were both put on
antibiotics. Saturday morning, Taylor was feeling okay, and we got
her all dressed up in her beautiful black velvet dress, little white
satin gloves, and princess tiara for the wedding. She looked
absolutely precious. Tears streamed down my face as I saw my darling
little girl walk down the aisle. Little did I know, Taylor would
never have the opportunity to walk down the aisle at her own wedding.
The following day, Sunday, Taylor was worse. She had a high fever and
did not feel well. We took her to the ER when we arrived back home.
They said, it is just an ear infection, keep giving her the
antibiotics. Tuesday, she was much worse, and we took her to our
pediatrician. He said, take her to the pediatric ER. She was having
trouble breathing and they decided they needed to intubate in order
to make sure her airway stayed open. They did x-rays and blood work.
They thought by the x-ray, she had an abscess in her throat. So that
evening, they went in to do surgery to remove it. Well, the next day, Wednesday, December 13th, a hematologist/oncologist came to talk to us about Taylor's blood work. It was most likely Taylor had leukemia, he said. We were devastated. Our whole life changed that day. It would never be completely the same again. To make matters worse, Taylor did not have the better of the 2 forms of leukemia. Instead of ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), which is more common and typically easier to treat, she had AML (acute myeloid leukemia). We also soon learned that she had a very rare, very aggressive form of AML as well.
We were soon told
that Taylor would need a bone marrow transplant to beat her leukemia.
The doctors checked Tristyn to see if she was a match. She was not.
We were very hopeful though, because I was pregnant with our third
child, due in January. If she were a match, we could use the
umbilical cord blood, collected at her birth, for Taylor's
transplant. (Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells and is being
used more At last, after over 3 weeks in ICU, Taylor was finally able to come off of the respirator. We were overjoyed. She was soon able to leave ICU and move to the transplant floor. It was still a long road. Taylor was very shaky and irritable from being so heavily sedated while on the respirator. They had to give her morphine to help her come off all of the harsh drugs. Soon, she was talking again, and SMILING (that was a GREAT day) and even able to meet her new baby sister! On February 13th, after undergoing very intense chemotherapy and total body radiation treatments twice a day for 5 days, Taylor received her transplant. She recovered unbelievably well and was able to go home just 24 days after her transplant. She was thrilled, we ALL were!! We had a huge crowd in the driveway welcome us home. Once she got inside, she found Santa had come! (She was intubated on Christmas day.) So we had Christmas day in March. She chased Tristyn all over the house and was soooo happy! That Sunday, she was on the front page of our local paper, the story of her amazing recovery.
Please visit Heroes
For Children to find out how you can help the life of a child
with cancer. |
~by
Taylor's Mom, Larissa
She spent the night in ICU and Chris and I stayed at the hospital in
a room they provided for us. We thought the next day she would feel
better and we would soon be home.
and more in transplants.) I ended up giving birth to Tessa over 3
weeks early. We collected her cord blood and PRAYED for a match.
Again, we were disappointed to learn that Tessa was not a match for
Taylor. We did get some good news though, they had found 2 very good
matches for Taylor through the umbilical cord blood bank. In the
meantime, Taylor remained in ICU on a respirator, already undergoing
chemotherapy treatments.
