Fighting Leukemia with Brayleigh the Brave
Our beautiful 5 year old girl, Brayleigh Grace, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on December 29, 2019. Though our family is encouraged that the treatment for (ALL) has over a 90% success rate, the road ahead for Brayleigh and her family will be long, difficult and costly. Her treatment will last 2.5 years with the first 6-8 months designed to put the cancer into remission and the remainder of the 2.5 years to ensure it does not come back. Brayleigh began "induction therapy," which is a very aggressive first phase of treatment, on Sunday, December 28, 2019, so if everything goes as planned she should be done with treatment somewhere around July 1, 2022.
Anything you can contribute will help, and everything is greatly appreciated.
What she has already endured in the first week of therapy:
(2) red blood cell transfusions
(3) platelet transfusions
(2) general anesthetic procedures
(1) PICC placement and removal
(1) Central line port placement
(1) bone marrow aspiration
(2) lumber punctures
(4) rounds of chemotherapy
Daily doses of steroids, blood pressure medication, antacids, pain medicine, etc.
Full Story:
Brayleigh started experiencing symptoms on November 23, 2019 which were primarily related to extreme, frequent headaches and some significant puffiness around her eyes. The pediatricians initially treated these symptoms as a sinus infection, so they began a round of antibiotics. Nothing improved, but the headaches started rapidly increasing to 2-8 a day. Waking her up at night - coming on extremely fast and then leaving just as fast about 15-30 minutes later. On Christmas Day, we noticed little red dots on her legs that is a condition called petechiae. We also realized she had some bruising that for Jonah would be normal, but not for Brayleigh. We knew this was just another abnormal symptom and made another appointment to take her in on Dec. 26th. The doctors took a look at her and ordered a very thorough set of blood work. Alison and I were celebrating Christmas with Alison's side of the family that evening. We had just started the gift exchange when Alison got a call from the doctor. The news indicated Brayleigh's blood work was not normal and she needed her to be admitted to the hospital for further testing right away. I don't think any of us will forget the unopened presents just sitting by the tree, the whole pumpkin pie on the table, time just stopped. We prayed and took Brayleigh down to Kaiser immediately.
The hospital visit began with an immediate blood and platelet transfusion. The doctors explained that because of her high white blood cell count, low hemoglobin, low platelets and enlarged spleen and liver they were 99.9% sure this was a Leukemia diagnosis. They did a bone marrow aspiration on Friday, as well as a lumbar puncture to get a sample of the spinal fluid and administer the first does of chemotherapy into the spinal fluid.
The spinal fluid test came back clear, but the doctors diagnosed Brayleigh with B-cell (ALL) on Sunday, December 29, 2019 and started her intensive treatment that night.
The last week has been a blur of shift trading down at the hospital, trying to manage Brayleigh's pain, putting out spot fires of new symptoms from treatment and a port surgery.
Brayleigh's name just so happens to mean "Ray of Hope" and we will be clinging to our only HOPE, Jesus, and our community for this entire journey and beyond. We thank you in advance for all the love and support over this very long treatment road we have only just begun.
