SAM

Here are some of the cards Sophia has received from family and friends.

Everyday she gets a free book from the library upstairs. These are just a few along with other things people have gotten her. By now she has added several more books. She likes them.

A little blurry but this is a little doll that she loves from the playroom. She is allowed to check out certain toys but this is not one she is allowed to take.

I told my mom about her not being able to check that toy out so grandma came the next day with this surprise for her little princess. Sophia can walk around the halls for hours if she could. She loves it.

Sophia has learned so much from being in the Hospital. She wanted to play with this doctor kit they had in the playroom and here she is listening to her brother Sam. I haven't officially announced it yet but we are having a boy. Samuel! If you ask her what her brother's name is she will say SAM in the cutest little voice. I love my babies :)

The Road To Recovery

Monday August 20, 2012 was the day our daughter, Sophia, was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia)
This is long but it's the long story short. You can't even imagine unless you have gone through something similar what one goes through once finding out you have cancer. So much that's being told to you and little time to process it all.

The weeks prior to us finding out about our daughter having Leukemia was a little rough. She had been running fevers all week, not eating well, not sleeping well and not playing well, which is not like her at all and by the end of the week she was very pale. We also noticed she was bruising more on her legs but we just treated her symptoms like we did every other time she had a fever. We gave her tylenol and gave her a bath when she was running a temperature. By the end of the week she was not getting better, which she normally would have gotten better by then, so we decided to take her to the E.R. to see what was going on with her. Once she was called into a room they started her on an iv right away due to her looking so pale and they also drew blood. That whole needle poking thing is no fun to see your child go through especially when they can't get a good vein. A doctor came and talked to us and said based on her symptoms it looks like this and that could be happening, all I heard was "lskdlakjsdlkjfb" doctor talk can be so confusing, so I just nodded and smiled and said okay. I told my husband that we'll just wait for results and then they'll explain things better so we could understand. We then waited for results. Finally, after forever it seemed, the result were her blood levels were low, extremely low. I wasn't too alarmed after this news because I still didn't understand what all that meant. Then the doctor said she was going to need to be admitted but not there at that hospital. They were going to be admitting her at a childrens hospital. I still wasn't feeling too worried until we were waiting for an ambulence transport team and a nurse told us that the transport team should be arriving soon, they had a delay getting the blood. Our faces must've looked concerned because she asked if anyone told us about a blood transfusion. A blood transfusion? No. She said yeah because Sophia's blood levels were so low she needed a blood transfusion so the team was bringing blood with them. Okay I got a lottle more worried here but not too much because I thought okay her blood levels are low and she needs blood then we can go home. When the transport team arrived to pick us up they explained a little more about the blood levels and what is normal and where our daughter's numbers were, extremely low. Before the blood they started her with plateletts, then they had to wait for a reaction. Sophia did not have a reaction, thank God. They got her ready and strapped on a gourney and off we went. On the way to the new hospital they started with the blood transfusion once the plateletts were done. We finally arrived at Children's at 2:30am, tak about being tired and our baby girl was still awake. My poor baby was so thrown off. All the staff that was working that night was introduced to us. Everyone was super nice. We were also introduced to the doctor on call that night and he was super nice too. He talked to us for quite a while. He basically started off with saying, had anyone at the other hospital mention the word cancer to you and of course I said no. He said looking at all her symptoms and her blood levels being so low two things could be happening. One, she can have a really bad infection somehwhere in the body or Two, she can have a cancer called Leukemia. As he was saying these things to me can you believe I still wasn't worried too much. After all he said they wouldn't know for sure until they got blood work in. I never felt in my heart that she would have cancer, I thought for sure it was an infection. So basically over the weekend they just kept giving her blood, pulling blood, checking her vitals and what not. Monday came too fast, this was the day we were going to find out just what our daughter had. In order to find out what she had she needed to have a bone marrow aspiration done. They were going to be pulling bone marrow out from her hip in order to find out what was going on. I was alone with my little girl this day and as we were being transported in the wheelchair to another building for the procedure I was getting nervous, I was finally worrying. This was really happening. We finally arrived to our destination and I got her checked in and the nurses introduced themselves to me and explained what was going to be happening and making sure I understood it all. I did. So for this procdure they were going to have to put her out for like half hour. I took her to a hallway where they had me hold her while they gave her the anesthesia and my baby was out in a second. Scarriest thing I ever saw, my baby knocked out so limp. I wanted to cry but I didn't. I promised myself I wouldn't cry unless they told me something was wrong with her, like cancer. That rest of the day was basically us waiting for the results, which we didnt get until the evening like around 5pm. Two ladies came to talk to us and basically said the results were Sophia has Leukemia. I cried, cried, and cried my eyes out and I had to stop myslef so I can hear the rest of what needed to be said. Thank God Sophia was sleeping because I didn't want her to see me crying. Just a side note, there's a big differnce between your daughter might have Leukemia and your daughter has leukemia. So, I managed to calm myself down and heard what she had to say. She explained the steps needed to be taken to see what kind of Leukemia she had. Before we went on I asked her if my daughter was going to be losing her hair, she said yes. I cried and cried some more. I know it's just hair but it's my baby girls hair, she has beautiful, somewhat curly, golden brown hair. She's never even had a real haircut. I just coudn't get over it. The lady continued on with what the next procedure was going to be which was going to happen the next day. Sophia was going to need to have a lumbar puncture done (spinal tap) to pull spinal fluid out and also get a little chemo in there. She was also going to have a picc line inserted into her arm so that she can have medications and blood drawn from there without having to poke her and because the blood closest to the heart is the best blood for them to be using. So the next day came and off we went to the same place as before to have this procedure done. The day was long and Sophia and I were really tired. Hubby got off work early because we were going to be having a meeting with a team of doctors to listen to what our plan for the road to recovery was going to look like and also get the results to what type of leukemia she has. We met with the team and we were told she has A.L.L. which is the good leukemia. They explained it like this: There's good leukemia and there's bad leukemia and within the good and bad leukemia there's also good and bad. So Sophia has the good leukemia and she also has the good side, meaning she's low risk. Thank you Jesus! I took a whole box of tissue because I thought for sure I was going to be balling my eyes out, but nope, once I heard this news it made me feel better and more confinfdent that she would overcome this new battle, her battle with leukemia. The days follwing all this new news and procedures seemed long, it still is long. I've spent most of the free days, free meaning no procedures, playing with her in the room and in a playroom they have here on our floor. So far she seems to be responding quite well with all the treatments she has gone through and medications she is taking. It's been nice meeting other moms and listening to what they went through and it's very encouraging. I thank God he brought us here and placed certain nurses in our life and allowing me to meet other moms. It makes this whole experience not seem so sad.

I want to add just how amazing my husband is. My husband is a super loving and caring dad. He would stay up with her most nights due to nurses coming in every hour and poking her and he would go to work the next day. I knew he loved and cared for our daughter but I never realized just how much he did. Seeing him break down for his baby girl was so sad yet touching. I really can't explain it well other then it's a sad and beautiful thing to see just how strong his love for his daughter is. Another thing I wanted to add is something that is so precious to me and something that I will never forget. The night it was confirmed Sophia had Leukemia I was alone with her for a couple of minutes and as I was holding her I just couldn't hold back my tears. I just couldn't get over that all this was happening to my baby. I also was trying not to cry in front of her because earlier I did and she noticed right away and she started crying for me so I said I wasn't going to cry in front of her again, but I did. I cried and cried and she looked at me and wiped away my tears from my cheek and I said I love you and she replied with I love you and she layed her head on my shoulders. Of course this made me cry more. Oh the bond of a mother and child is so unbelieveably strong, it's a crazy. I thank God he's allowing me to experience the kind of love that he has for me but for my own.

All this being said, here we have started Sophia's road to recovery. So far so good. Were are praying that she keeps staying a standard patient with the standard outcome with no relapses. We put all our trust and faith in God to get her and us through these next 2, 2 in a half years. We can't forget to mention just how overwhelmed we are with all the love and support we have been receiving not only from family but people we don't even know. All the prayers are being felt from all around. If Sophia only knew the depth of love and care she has out there she'd be so thankful and  happy I just know it. You guys are all a part of her/the Road To Recovery.