Jordan M. - Quilt Finished in 2005

Born: April 12, 2000

Illness: Wilm's Tumor Stage ll, Left Kidney

Jordan M.'s Story

written by mom Charlene

Jordan was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor Friday, September 17th 2004, at St. Louis Children's Hopsital. Jordan had a 7cm tumor on her left kidney. Jordan started running a fever Sunday, September 11, 2004, topping at 104. I called and made her an appt. with our pediatrician for Tuesday. I thought it was a virus and she would get better, but I was concerned about some bald patches on the back of her head. My friend Robyn said it looked like alopecia. Jordan continued to run fevers and not feel very well through the night and by the next morning she had tenderness in her left side and did not want it touched AT ALL! At her Dr. Appt. Her pediatrician suspected a urinary tract infection and took a urine sample. This showed blood in the urine but no bacteria. He decided to wait on doing an x-ray to see if antibiotics would clear this up. He also sent the urine specimen for the lab to test for bacteria.

In the meantime, Jordan's pain stayed the same as well as her fevers. I called and talked to my pedatrician's nurse on Wed. and she told me to watch her fluids and if she was in severe pain, I could take her to the emergency room. The next day (Thursday) she seemed a little better but spiked a fever in the afternoon. I called the doctor back and scheduled an appt. for Friday, Sept. 17th. When we got the Dr. appt. Jordan still had a low grade fever and still had tenderness to her left side. Dr. Sean thought at first it was an enlarged spleen and sent us for an ultrasound and bloodwork. The ultrasound showed a mass on her left kidney and we then had a ct scan. That confirmed that it was some sort of tumor and we were referred to St. Louis Children's Hospital. There we met with a specialist and we were scheduled to have surgery, Sept. 21, 2004.  Her left kidney and the tumor were removed. 

The pathology report was Stage II Favorable Histology.  She has undergone 13 chemotherapy treatments beginning September 27th and we hope will end February 14, 2005.  Her treatment has been postponed two times because of low counts and 1 time due to the shingles and low counts.  As if cancer is not enough to deal with, Jordan was diagnosed with Alopecia and will begin a steroid therapy when she is finished with her chemotherapy.  We hope that will stimulate hair growth and she will have head full of hair to bounce around when this is all over.

Jordan is the baby of the family.  She has an older sister Amanda who is 10 and in the fifth grade this year.  Her brother Dawson is 20 months older than Jordan (6 years old) and was diagnosed with Type One diabetes when he was 16 months old and I was 4 months pregnant with Jordan.  He is in kindergarten this year and doing well with the insulin pump.  We love to go camping and be outdoors during the summer as much as we can.

Written by Jordan's mom Charlene on February 1, 2005