FeFe B. - Quilt Finished in 2007

Born: January 25, 1992

Illness: Philadelphia Positive, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

FeFe's Story

written by mom Lucretia in December 2006

Felicia (she likes to be called Fefe), was born in St. Charles, MO on January 25th, 1992, a healthy baby. Shortly after, we moved back to Mississippi to be near family.

Fefe was never really sick growing up except for the regular colds and of course a bad case of the chicken pox. She has always been active in sports and all activities in school.

In December of 2003, we moved to Tennessee because of her daddy's job. She started competing in pageants at the age of 12, was a junior high cheerleader, active in her youth group at church, and served as a representative in the student council at her school.

In December of 2005, our family moved back to Mississippi again, because of her dad's work. Shortly after the move, Fefe began to complain about her muscles in her legs and side hurting. We assumed it was because she was not cheering anymore and not exercising as much. In February, she started losing weight and became very weak. We took her to the doctor. The doctor examined her and spoke with both of us about what was going on with her. We were then told by the doctor that nothing was wrong with her and that she was acting out because we had moved her away from her friends.

In March, she began to get weaker as the days past, sleeping a lot, and continued to complain about aching muscles. We took her to another doctor and asked to have blood work done because as a mother, I knew something was wrong. That day was March 27th 2005. They did not tell us the results, just that they were admitting us into the Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital that day. We were put in a room on the children's cancer floor. But we just sat in the room thinking this too was a little virus we just had to get over. Still, the doctors there just told us they wanted to do additional blood work and bone marrow test so they could find the problem.

March 28th, all the tests were done and 1:00 pm. our lives as we knew it would never be the same. She had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. But they told us this was treatable with a high success rate. We were then given a 2 year chemo plan. So after the shock, we set out to beat this cancer. We also had additional bone marrow sent to the Mayo Clinic for further testing.

In May, we were told that her Leukemia was Philadelphia Chromosome Positive, which made her cancer very aggressive and would not make the cancer go away with just chemo, she would need a Bone Marrow Transplant soon. Fefe would also need an exact match for it to be successful.

By the Grace of God, her little sister, Kennedy, was that exact match. July 4th, 2006 we checked into the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and started the intense chemo and radiation to get Fefe ready to receive Kennedy's bone marrow. July 12th, 2006 was Fefe's New Birthday and the transplant was successful. She was 95.4% covered with cancer and now she is in remission. Kennedy did a great job and they will forever be bonded by this experience. The doctor was also able to get additional bone marrow to freeze in case Fefe needs another bone marrow transplant.

On August 4th, Fefe was able to go home. For 100 days she could not eat out or go out in public if a lot of people were around. She hated that because she loves fast food and shopping! We had to cook all her meals at home. She was not allowed to eat anything that was not cooked first. For the next year, she has to go to the cancer clinic for blood work twice a week, take her daily medicines, and she also has to take Gleevec (a chemo pill) everyday for the next 6 months. Fefe will have a bone marrow test every 3 months for the next year to make sure she is still in remission. After that, she will go to the cancer clinic monthly for a while to make sure her blood work is normal.

Although she has her bad days, she also has good days. Her hair is starting to grow back. But she misses being in school with her friends. We have a teacher come to our home 2 to 3 times a week to teach and work with her. She is following her classes from school and doing a great job. Hopefully if she continues to get better she will be able to go back soon.