Background Story
Kendall's official
diagnosis took place on 1/11/10. It was a day that changed the
course of our lives & one that will remain etched in our
memories forever. The lining of this dark cloud is that we've
now begun the long road to recovery...
Kendall had truly been sick for many months. She began to
complain of pain in her legs in early October. For several
weeks, we assumed they were growing pains, as they were
intermittent and frequently occurred at night.
The persistence of the pains led us to the pediatrician, who
concurred that they were likely growing pains but ordered some
blood work to be safe. I knew that the Doctor was trying to
rule out leukemia, and with dread we took her to the lab that
same day. (My dad rushed over to accompany us because I knew I
couldn't handle Kendall, Christian, a needle and my worries all
at once)
Unfortunately the leukemia cells were still in the marrow and
not detectable in her blood at that time. So the tests came
back normal & the diagnosis was that Kendall was simply
growing. The pains worsened over the next few weeks, to the
point where she was hardly able to sleep. Kyle and I took turns
massaging her legs throughout the night- which relieved the pain
slightly.
In hindsight, it's clear that Kendall's health had deteriorated
as well. She grew increasingly lethargic, and often fell asleep
on the car-ride to dance after school. Other days she remained
awake but claimed to be too tired to dance. Anybody who knows
Kendall will understand how miserable she must have felt to keep
her from dancing.
Kendall also went to the school nurse frequently, complaining of
headaches or stomach-aches. On many occasions she had a
low-grade fever (<100 degrees) that forced the nurse to send her
home from school and request that I keep her home the following
day. I often allowed her to go in late when her legs were
aching or to even take the day off when the pain persisted. She
was missing a lot of school, and we all grew increasingly
concerned.
I began to feel that we were facing more than just "growing
pains" and requested a referral from our pediatrician to a
specialist. She suggested a pediatric orthopedist and I brought
her in that same week. He took x-rays, reviewed the bloodwork,
and examined her. His diagnosis was growing pains as well.
Dissatisfied and frustrated, I asked for a second orthopedist's
opinion. We were given another referral, and another
Doctor visit later, we had our third diagnosis of growing pains.
That was the week before Christmas, and things were a little
hectic until after the new year. But the pains had rendered
Kendall weak and virtually immobile. Her legs looked so skinny
and we thought she was just growing, and losing her baby fat.
We measured her, and she had grown over 2 inches since
her well-visit last May. Not a huge amount, but she is very
petite so we figured that was evidence of the growth that was
causing these debilitating pains.
The week before her diagnosis, Kendall had several nosebleeds,
one of which took over a half-hour to stop & was quite
alarming. I was ready to bring her to the ER, and was literally
googling "stop a nosebleed" on the laptop at 3 a.m. (leukemia
suppresses platelets, which are instumental in clotting). Thank
God that Kyle kept his cool during that one, cause I almost lost
it. When I called the pediatrician the next day, I was told
that frequent nosebleeds are common during the winter and that
because the nose is so vascularized it can often bleed
excessively. The Doctor clearly wasn't alarmed, so I tried to
dismiss it as well.
Anyway, the day that her pediatrician finally ordered a second
round of bloodwork was January 8th. I had called the office
begging for them to prescribe some tylenol with codeine.
Kendall was in such pain, and hadn't slept in almost 3 days.
She was literally up all night writhing in pain. The motrin and
tylenol were not even taking the edge off of it, and I hoped
that the codeine would both offer relief and aid her sleep.
I was told to bring her back to the lab for more bloodwork,
which Kyle did early the following morning. The pediatrician
called that Monday while Kendall was at school. I recall her
every word: "There is no easy way to tell you this, but Kendall
has leukemia. You need to pick her up from school immediately
and bring her to Schneider's Children's Hospital."
