Amillianna is a fun-loving, carefree
girl two year old who loves to play with her older brother, dogs and
cats. In February of this past year she started to feel sick and her
ears were bothering her so her mom made an appointment. The doctor told
her she had a fever and had an ear infection in both ears, so she gave
her some medicine to take at home. A few weeks later some of her teeth
started to come in so she was still running a fever, her ears were still
bothering her and now she had this odd bubble on her thumb. Amillianna
went in to have it checked and they thought it was just a blister, a day
later she got a big one on her ear then later that day she started to
get some more on her face. Amillianna went to the ER and found out that
she had something called Bulleous Impetigo. March came around and she
was still having difficulty with her ears hurting and a fever, her
tongue started to bother her and found out that she had thrush. The last
week in March her mom noticed that she was just not as active as she
had been and her skin was an odd color so she went up to the ER.
Amillianna got there and they did lab work and the results came back and
my hemoglobin was only 3.1, so they came back up because they did not
believe that those were the actual results and to make sure that it was
accurate and not a mistake in the lab. She barely moved when they were
poking her, she just did not have the energy to move; she was so tired.
After they got the second set of blood and ran it, it came back again at
3.1 so they called the University Children’s Hospital to let them know
she was coming and to be ready. When she got there they had someone
who does IV’s in helicopters come in to place one on her because it was
hard to get a vein. After she placed it they got more blood to test it
and to get her ready for her first blood transfusion. Before they did
her first transfusion her hemoglobin was only 2.9. Amillianna had 6
transfusions before her hemoglobin was at a safe number, then they
talked about doing a Bone Marrow Biopsy because they believed why she
had been sick all this time was because I had cancer. A day later they
arranged it and Amillianna went in to have a bone marrow biopsy done and
later found out that it was positive but not a final result yet as to
what she had. She went in and had a port placed so that it was easier to
get blood and it was where they would hook her IV up to give her
medication and also had tubes placed in each ear as the ear drum had
ruptured under the pressure of the infections. On 4/30/12 she was
officially given a diagnosis of standard risk B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukemia. Amillianna went in and started her first round of chemo on
May 1st. Things were going great! She was in remission after the first
phase of chemotherapy, but a few weeks later she started to get those
same bubbles on the side of her head along with a fever. Her mom thought
it was the impetigo again so they went to the ER and got some medicine
but it was not getting better so they ended up having to go to the
University and after 4 days of being inpatient and in isolation they
found out that I had a bad case of Chicken pox which she caught from
someone in the grocery store. While she was there, they were having a
hard time giving her Tylenol so after they went ahead and placed a NG
tube which goes down the nose, down the back of the throat and into her
stomache her medicines go into the tube and they do not even have to
worry about whether or not they taste good or bad; which makes things
easier on everyone. Amillianna was in the hospital for close to 3 weeks
until the chicken pox were scabbed over. After that she went home
things went smooth and did not have any other surprises arise during the
next 4 months but did have some issues with a medicine that made her
sick but switched to something that did not. In October because of the
round of Chemo she was getting was intense her counts dropped so low
that Amillianna's body’s defense against it was to spike a fever so she
ended up in back to back week long hospital stays due to a fever. She
ended up needing another blood transfusion while she was there the last
time, but after that things have been good. A few weeks ago she pulled
her NG tube out because she decided she no longer wanted to have it in
and has been taking her medicines like a champ! Amillianna is now
starting her Interim Maintenance 2 Phase which is every 10 days she go
in for chemotherapy, it last for 8 weeks then she starts Maintenance!!
That is Amillianna's journey to this point and she appreciates all the
wonderful friends that she has found during this journey thus far.
Images by: Wild Photography by Tori
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