Niavh Hyatt's Support Fund
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Niavh is our wonderful, sweet, smart and beautiful daughter. She was diagnosed with an aggressive rare cancer of the brain and spine (sPNET) in Dec. 2011 just before her eighth birthday.
She completed her first treatment in 2012 which included initial surgery on her spinal cord, six weeks of hi-dose radiation as well as four rounds of hi-dose chemo with stem cell rescue. This means she had four separate stem cell transplants. To collect enough stem cells she had to undergo the collection process nine times, have two separate surgeries to place a collection line in her neck, and have a bone marrow harvest surgery. The treatment remains one of the hardest treatments for cancer available for children or adults. Writing about it here does her an injustice, as it in no way even begins to describe the horrors she has been through.
In 2014, we were devastated to learn her cancer returned and we were told there was no cure for Niavh. She had brain surgery to remove the new tumor. She began a chemo trial which kept her cancer under control for eight months.
In November of 2014, Niavh was hospitalized for extreme headaches. MRI scans showed her cancer had returned a third time and her doctors told us there were no more treatment options.
We are now at home with Niavh, who was released into hospice care. We have no timeline, but know cancer will take her precious life soon. She has endured and suffered so much. More than most adults. Cancer has stolen so much from her, and from our family.
Our expenses are many, and we just want to be able to provide Niavh with the best quality of life we can in the short time we have left. We are down to one part-time income now so we can spend as much time with Niavh as possible. Needless to say making ends meet during this difficult time wouldn't be possible without help and we are so thankful for every bit.
If you'd like to read more about Niavh, please visit her blog at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/niavhhyatt , where I have written about her journey since the very beginning. Thank you for your love and support, it means so much to us all.
She completed her first treatment in 2012 which included initial surgery on her spinal cord, six weeks of hi-dose radiation as well as four rounds of hi-dose chemo with stem cell rescue. This means she had four separate stem cell transplants. To collect enough stem cells she had to undergo the collection process nine times, have two separate surgeries to place a collection line in her neck, and have a bone marrow harvest surgery. The treatment remains one of the hardest treatments for cancer available for children or adults. Writing about it here does her an injustice, as it in no way even begins to describe the horrors she has been through.
In 2014, we were devastated to learn her cancer returned and we were told there was no cure for Niavh. She had brain surgery to remove the new tumor. She began a chemo trial which kept her cancer under control for eight months.
In November of 2014, Niavh was hospitalized for extreme headaches. MRI scans showed her cancer had returned a third time and her doctors told us there were no more treatment options.
We are now at home with Niavh, who was released into hospice care. We have no timeline, but know cancer will take her precious life soon. She has endured and suffered so much. More than most adults. Cancer has stolen so much from her, and from our family.
Our expenses are many, and we just want to be able to provide Niavh with the best quality of life we can in the short time we have left. We are down to one part-time income now so we can spend as much time with Niavh as possible. Needless to say making ends meet during this difficult time wouldn't be possible without help and we are so thankful for every bit.
If you'd like to read more about Niavh, please visit her blog at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/niavhhyatt , where I have written about her journey since the very beginning. Thank you for your love and support, it means so much to us all.
Organizer
Heather Hyatt
Organizer
West Des Moines, IA