Sunday, November 20 into Monday, November 21, 2011 will forever be remembered as the worst days of my life.  My daughter, Haylee, had been complaining of her head and stomach hurting for about two days.  We had been giving her Pepto-Bismol and she said it was helping.  We noticed she had been sleeping / napping a lot the past few days but didn't think much of it because I had been waking her up around 5:30am to get up and get ready for school.  We had also noticed that she had more bruises than usual, but she had just finished a soccer season and, let's face it, she's an eight year old tomboy. I planned to take her in to her pediatrician on Monday, but my plans changed very quickly.

Haylee hadn't eaten and was sitting in her room rocking on her bed crying that her stomach hurt. I raced Haylee to Children's Healthcare Immediate Care on Satellite Blvd in Duluth.  We waited for about 20 minutes.  From the time we got out of the car until we were called she spiked a fever of 103.  I began to cry because I was extremely worried about her.  She was so sweet and said, "Mommy, don't cry. I'm fine."  We began to walk back to a room and the nurse told me quietly that they were concerned about her symptoms and that I needed to be strong.  The doctor on call ordered a CBC (complete blood count) and found that her WBC (white blood count) was 115,000 and her platelet count was 19,000 (normal WBC for a child is 5,000-10,000 and normal platelets are 160,000-500,000). 

They took me into a room and told me they were concerned she may have Leukemia, and were going to transport us by ambulance to the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Upon arriving Haylee was immediately put on IV fluids and more blood was drawn. After all labs were tested, Dr. Cooper came in to confirm that my sweet baby girl had Leukemia but further tests would need to be done to determine what kind. The next morning, Dr. Keller came in and told us that Haylee had APL (acute promyelocytic leukemia), which is a rare form with the highest cure rate.  At that point, we were transported to the PICU immediately because she had a risk of bleeding out and clotting in the brain.

I was a wreck just looking at Haylee, knowing that I couldn't help her.  I went through so many emotions - anger, sadness, guilt, and hopelessness - none of which I felt just 24 hours ago. Without the help, support and caring of the doctors, nurses, child life specialists and other staff, we could not get through this difficult journey. We have also made friends with other children and their families that have helped us tremendously along the way. Thank you Aflac Cancer Center!