SCARLETT'S STORY My name is Lindsey and I am Scarlett's mother. I wanted to share a little about Scarlett's story and how we found out that she has cancer. First, anyone that knows my little Scarlett knows that she is a ray of sunshine when she walks into the room. She has the biggest contagious smile and the most bubbly personality. She truly touches your heart when she is around you. Scarlett has always been a great baby, she always went to bed on time and slept all night long. About a week and a half before we got her diagnosis, Scarlett wasn't sleeping and was crying a lot through the night which was abnormal for her behavior. The one night when I went to check on her she was drenched in sweat with no fever, to the point that her clothes looked all wet. Over the next couple of days she would be playing and just start crying out of nowhere. When I would ask her what hurt she would continuously point to the area of her belly button. The pain got so bad that one night she grabbed my hand and put it on her belly when she was crying. During this time, I also saw a huge decline in her appetite and she wasn't taking any fluids either. I knew something was wrong but thought maybe she had some type of infection. I first took her to see a physician and he suggested that she may have a virus and to come back in after the weekend if it didn't get any better. The weekend past and still she wasn't any better. It was a Monday night and she started bawling out of nowhere again, this time I decided to take her to the local ER. The ER Doc ran tests on her and she also had an X-ray done of her abdomen/chest area and still nothing showed up. Her blood test showed that she had low hemoglobin but everything else seemed to be coming back normal. I was told that the pain was probably gas discomfort and to give it another day, if she didn't get any better to follow up with her physician. That night she was in tremendous pain so the next day she saw her pediatrician who sent us to Children's Imaging down in Vandalia. The tech was doing an ultra-sound looking to see if Scarlett had a telescoping colon. While I was there, I received a call from her Pediatrician who told me that what they were looking for wasn't the issue and that the tech just by chance caught a portion of the mass during the ultrasound. I couldn't even hardly breath or comprehend what I was just told. We were sent down to Children's right away and within hours Scarlett was admitted to the Children's cancer floor. The very next morning the Chief of Oncology met with me and told me she might have Neuroblastoma and that we needed a CT Scan to see a better image of it. The CT scan showed a mass growing off her adrenal gland. At this point we started meeting her primary care doctor and the team that would be taking care of Scarlett. Within days of finding out that Scarlett has cancer, she was already in the operating room to get her double access port put in, they took a biopsy of the tumor and biopsy's of both hips to see if the cancer had spread to the bone marrow because this type of cancer must like to go there. We also had to do an MIBG scan to see where it was showing the cancer in her body. After many of the tests came back, Scarlett was diagnosed with Stage Four High Risk Neuroblastoma and it had spread to her bone marrow. As a mother, hearing a diagnosis like that is very hard to digest. I bawled for days and I still do. We than set down and discussed her treatment plan and when she would start chemo. From the time we started at Dayton Children's I can't express enough how they make you a part of their family. Scarlett goes up and down the hallways telling everyone Hi. She has an amazing team of doctors and nurses taking great care of her. Scarlett has already made many friends on the Oncology floor and enjoys making pretend coffee for many of them! If you ever are down at Dayton Childrens, please take the time to thank the staff because they truly are a team of amazing individuals. Scarlett has an extensive treatment plan set up for her which will include treatments being done at both Children's in Dayton and Cincinnati. During her treatment process it is very important that we do our best to protect Scarlett from germs. The doctors stressed how important it is to wash your hands before being around her and that she is not to be around anyone who feels like they have a cough or cold coming on or has been sick within a week prior to seeing her. If her white cell count is down, Scarlett is limited to being around just her caregivers. However, she does enjoy people face timing her! Since finding out Scarlett's diagnosis, I can't begin to express how grateful and blessed our family is for all of our family, friends, and people in our community that have reached out offering to help us in anyway. I truly can't tell you how thankful I am for all of your kind words, support, and prayers. Scarlett is truly blessed that she has all of your continuing support and prayers. Thank you for supporting me! Please keep my Scarlett in your prayers, Lindsey Unrast