Addie's Fight for Cancer Fund

Addie Bavuso was diagnosed with Acute B cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia on October 3, 2018. The road to this diagnosis was a long and frightening one for Addie and her family. Addie started out with Hand Foot and Mouth disease but instead of getting better within a normal amount of time, Addie started experiencing upper rib pain, weakness, fatigue and uncontrollable fevers. Then she started experiencing Apechia, little red dots all over her legs. Doctors told Amy, Addie's Mom to alternate between Tylenol and Advil and that she should recover quickly. After all, Addie was a healthy, athletic young lady full of life. Unfortunately, she wasn't getting better, she was getting worse. Amy decided to take Addie into Children's Hospital on September 30, 2018. Within only an hour of a blood draw, doctors came in to them Addie's parents that she had Leukemia. The news was every parent's worst nightmare. Their healthy, athletic and full of life daughter, the child that never got sick, was just diagnosed with Leukemia. 
Doctors told the Bavuso family that Addie would be in remission within a month. This was not the case unfortunately. Addie had leukemia cells in her bone marrow. The devasting news was that Addie had High Risk, Acute B cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  She was at high risk of relapse. Addie's sibling had to be tested to see if any of them would be a match in the event Addie would need a bone marrow tranplant. Amazingly, her brother Kaiden was a 100% match. 
During Addie's chemo treatments she experienced severe nose bleeds. Severe enough that she underwent surgery to reconstruct her nose. She's had temporary Type 1 Diabetes from the steroid treatments, and has a severe allergy to chemos. Throughout all that, Addie did not complain once. A testament to her strength indeed. 
In January 2019, Addie was told she had no evidence of disease in her bone marrow and her treatments were expected to be done in January 2021.  However, Addie's story does not end there. After an outpatient chemo treatment, Addie and her Mom stopped at the hospital pharmacy on their way home. Addie started complaining that her right leg wasn't working right. She also started slurring her words as she tried communicating with her Mom. She was rushed to the Emergency Room where they surmised Addie had brain toxicity from the Chemo Methotrexate that was given to her in her spine. She was non-responsive in ICU for over a week.  Upon waking up, her family and medical team learned that Addie had regressed to the infancy stage. She could not talk, walk or do anything for herself.  After two month of rehab Addie was able to go home. She was at a toddler level of functioning and moved through recovery over the next few months regaining all of her functions. The fight this young lady has in her is nothing short of amazing. 
Right now, Addie still struggles with brain toxicity which has given her cognitive issues. These include tremors, balance issues, speech issues, struggles with fine motors skills and much frustration. 
Addie has experienced many hurdles throughout her young life. Yet, she has a smile for everyone and not a negative word in her vocabulary. She is a fighter and I have no doubt she will beat this ugly disease. 
Her family has an incredible amount of love and support for each other and I have personally witnessed the bond this family has that makes them strong. 
I am hoping we as a community can come together and help this family recover from the extreme cost of medical bills associated with Addie's hospital stays, prescriptions, therapy and all the other debilitating cost that comes with a life changing diagnosis like cancer.