Sadie F. - Quilt Finished in 2005
Born: May 28, 2002
Illness: Wilms Tumor Stage 2
A Thank you from Sadie's Family!
Written August 21, 2005
Hello - I just wanted you to know that we received Sadie's quilt and it is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I would like to send a thank you card but I don't know who to send it to. Any suggestions? I will e-mail you a picture of Sadie with it. Again thank you and everyone who was a part of it.
Jeannie and Sadie
Sadie F.'s Story
written by mom Jeannie
Sadie was born May 28th, 2002 after only 6 hours of labor. She was our first child and the first grandchild on mommy's side. We were so delighted that she was finally here!! She was a very healthy, happy baby and loved to be sung to and held. She started walking at 10 months and started talking very early. She learned her ABC's and how to count to 10 before she was 2.
Just before she turned 2, when I was changing her diaper, I noticed her belly was sticking out more then normal on her right side. It was also very hard. I thought that she might be constipated so I didn't really think to much about it and it was on a Sunday so her doctor wasn't in. The next day, though, it was still sticking out, felt hard and she had been to the bathroom. This is when I started worrying. I called the doctor on Tuesday morning and she saw a family doctor because her pediatrician was out. After he saw her he recommended an abdominal ultrasound which was done the next day. After the ultrasound he called us and said that he was referring her to a pediatric oncologist because she had a mass on her liver. Hearing this made our family SINK! How could our precious little girl who had never really been sick have this horrid thing?!
The following day we went 90 miles one way to get a CT scan and another ultrasound. A few long hours later we met with doctors to tell us the news. They said that it wasn't her liver but her right kidney. They thought that she had a Wilm's Tumor. This is a malignant tumor and is most common in children between 2-5 years old. They scheduled her to have surgery on Monday May 3, just 4 days away. Her surgeon said, though, if the tumor was too big and/or close to another organ they would only be able to biopsy it and not remove it all along with the kidney. We hoped and prayed that they could take it all out. She could only have clear liquids the entire day of Sunday. Do you know how hard it is for a not even 2 year old to only have clear liquids? She did very well with this though.
Her surgery went well, not as long as expected, and they were able to remove her right kidney along with the entire tumor. Thank goodness. They also took some lymph nodes around her kidney to check and see if it had spread. During surgery they put a port in, which is under her skin on the left side. This is where she received her fluids. We had to wait 2 LONG days for the news. Well, it didn't spread to the lymph nodes and was a Stage II tumor meaning that it was just confined to her kidney but was really large. This meant that she didn't have to have radiation, just chemotherapy.
Sadie has to have a total of 14 chemo treatments out of 19 weeks. She gets these through her port. I have to put Emla cream on her port along with a bandage an hour before her appointment for chemo. The trip to get this is 90 miles one way. To receive her chemo only takes 10 minutes or less but we are at the clinic around an hour or longer depending on how fast everything else goes. At first Sadie would cry every time a nurse or doctor would come in the room, but now she doesn't shed a tear. She even lets her doctor hold her while listening to her heart and lungs. She also gets a very special treat every time we go for a treatment, she gets to go to McDonald's. So as soon as she is done with her treatment and seeing the doctor she lets everyone know that she's going to McDonald's.
She hasn't gotten sick from the chemo nor has she lost any of her beautiful curls. She now likes to show everyone her 2 "owies", one from her surgery and the other from her port. She has to have a CT scan and ultrasounds a few times during her treatments and then every 3-6 months after her treatments are stopped. She gets her port taken out after her last chemo treatment if everything is okay.
Written by Sadie's mom Jeannie
