Taylor Genevieve Warren (aka “Bella”) was diagnosed with Leukemia on September 13, 2007 at the innocent age of 4. Our journey with her through this hardship begins that Thursday. With no symptoms other than a fever that she couldn’t seem to shake, I took Taylor to see her pediatrician. Besides Taylor’s fever, her physical exam looked fine, but her doctor insisted she get a Chest X-Ray and a CBC just to be thorough. Taylor’s x-ray was clear, but at 7:00 PM that evening, the pediatrician called with the CBC results. Taylor was very anemic and had some abnormal cells in her blood. We needed to go immediately up to Cardinal Glennon for further testing and expect to stay throughout the weekend. Within a few hours of arriving at Cardinal Glennon, we were informed that our little girl had High Risk Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (commonly referred to as High Risk Pre-B A.L.L.). Within the first 24 hours Taylor had had her first blood transfusion, spinal tap and bone marrow aspiration, as well as, her first doses of chemotherapy and steroids.
Since her diagnosis Taylor has spent over 120 days, non-consecutively, as an inpatient with ¼ of that on isolation. She has received over 30 blood product transfusions, 6 surgeries, 5 Bone Marrow Aspirations, and 23 Spinal Taps. Some of the side effects of her treatment have been devastating. She has lost her hair twice. She has suffered both dramatic weight loss and gains. At one point, she developed mouth sores so severe that she was hooked up to a constant flow of morphine and still couldn’t eat for 2 weeks. She developed shingles and, on several occasions, life threatening infections because her immune system was so compromised. Then came the neurological issues, side effects of the chemo, that rendered her brain unresponsive for over 2 hours, caused her to have seizures that still persist today and, in the end, may have a lasting effect on her mental development.
Taylor successfully made it off treatment and took her final chemotherapy December 22, 2009. This past Christmas we celebrated 2 yrs chemo and cancer free!
As exciting as it is to be off chemotherapy it has left its mark on my daughter. While her blood seems to have fully recovered, her brain has not. Taylor takes medication daily to control her seizures, experiences moments of short term and, occasionally, long term memory lapses, fights daytime sleepiness and struggles to keep up when she is asked to learn more information. Since her fight began, Taylor has been pushed to the absolute limits, but on the really hard days, I just can’t help but think that without all of the medications and treatments available to us, we wouldn’t still have her with us today. Just 20 years ago the rates of cure were much lower without the medicines and knowledge that doctors possess today. I am so grateful that I have had only a rough road to travel down and not a dead end. Hopefully someday soon, with your help, the path to a cure will be much easier and much shorter!
We have answered the call to be heroes! We've teamed up to have our heads shaved – to stand in solidarity with kids fighting cancer, but more importantly, to raise money to find cures.
Please support us with a donation to the St. Baldrick's Foundation. This volunteer-driven charity funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government.
Your gift will give hope to infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers. So when we ask for your support, we're really asking you to support these kids...kids just like my Bella!
Thank you!
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