Fundraising for Cailey Wu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah and Mel have set up this Go Fund Me page on behalf of Gemma and Dan Wu to raise funds for their daughter Cailey Wu (10), who was recently diagnosed with a tumour on her spine.

 

Cailey has commenced chemotherapy treatment which will be ongoing for most of this year. Your support will lessen the financial burden on the Wu’s as Gem will likely have to give up her business to become Cailey’s primary carer.

 

Gem share’s their story:

 

In November 2021, Cailey went from running around at school and doing her usual tennis lesson on a Monday night to waking up Tuesday morning and being off balance and not being able to walk properly. We took her to the GP who did an examination and ordered some blood tests and referred us for an MRI. We booked this in for later that week but after waking up the next morning with no change to the way she was walking we took her to the Randwick Children’s Hospital. There she had an MRI of the brain to check for any neurological causes. This came back clear, which was a huge relief, and we were sent home with the hope this would begin to improve on its own and with a review in two days’ time.

 

On Friday 3rd December, Cailey woke up and couldn’t move her legs at all. We got an ambulance to take us back to Randwick Children’s Hospital and once she was seen there, she was booked in for an MRI of her spine.

 

We went from the emergency department to the ward while we waited for the results. We were there for not even an hour when the results of the MRI came back, and our world was turned upside down.

 

The doctors took us to the quiet room and told us that Cailey had a tumour in her spinal column and they needed to operate immediately to remove it. We didn’t have time to think, which was probably a good thing, and everything happened quickly from there. We were told the surgery could take anywhere between 3-12 hours depending on what they found. They told us of the risks, the possible outcomes, one of which would be that she may not have movement in her legs. There wasn’t a choice…. the tumour had to be removed so Cailey went in for surgery and we waited anxiously for the surgery to be over.

 

After less than 3 hours the neurosurgeon called us and told us the surgery had gone as well as he could have hoped and the tumour looked to be malignant but we would have to wait for the pathology results to confirm that was the case, and what type of cancer it was.

 

We got to see our brave; strong, gorgeous daughter wake up in ICU. She recovered so well from her surgery and over the next 5 days spent in ICU she amazed everyone, and she wasn’t taking any pain relief!

 

During that time in ICU we met so many doctors and had so many conversations with the neurology, rehab, and oncology teams as well as the social worker. We were overwhelmed at the amount of information we were trying to comprehend on minimal sleep and in a heightened emotional state.

 

After her surgery, Cailey had no movement from her waist down. The doctors said it was early days, but it was still unknown as to whether she would regain any sensation or movement. We just had to wait and see...

 

We moved back to the ward and every day Cailey would have doctors coming and asking whether she could feel them touching her legs and feet or if she could wriggle her toes and while she had some sensation there was no movement. About two weeks after her surgery there was a slight toe wriggle! We were all ecstatic, the doctors and nurses included! Since then she has regained more movement in her feet and legs which is promising to see.

 

The pathology results came back about a week and a half after her surgery and it was confirmed that Cailey had cancer. It is a type of bone cancer called Ewing Sarcoma . Although we were expecting the diagnosis it was still devastating to have it confirmed and learn about the treatment and side effects and all that Cailey was going to have to go through, mentally, physically and emotionally.

 

Cailey had a procedure to put in a central line in her chest where all her medications get intravenously administered. Then we moved to the children’s oncology ward and chemotherapy started just days later.

 

Cailey’s cancer treatment plan is over eight (8) months and will consist of nine (9) fortnightly cycles of chemotherapy, then radiation and then chemotherapy again. She has since gone through three rounds of chemo and has so far coped well with these. Her third round of chemo was delayed as she caught covid whilst in hospital and needed to isolate. The chemo treatment thankfully has only caused minimal nausea, but Cailey has been very lethargic and has lost her appetite during treatment. She started losing her hair 2.5 weeks after her first treatment and eventually decided to shave it off to stop it annoying her. Dan being the wonderful and supportive Dad that he is shaved his head too!

 

Cailey is having daily physiotherapy sessions, when she is well enough, and we are working towards getting her home in between her chemo treatments but to do this we are waiting on specialised equipment to support her mobility needs this includes her own wheelchair and a custom hospital bed for home.

 

We have both been off work since Cailey was admitted to hospital and have been spending alternate nights at the hospital and at home with Blake. With current Covid restrictions only one parent/carer can be in the ward at any time and no siblings, so we go back and forth each day.

 

Dan will likely have to go back to full time work at the end of January however as Cailey’s care needs are high and with her chemotherapy treatment and regular stays in hospital Gemma will likely have to give up her business to become Cailey’s primary caregiver. This brings financial challenges as it will be for at least 8 months for the cancer treatment and possibly longer with her rehabilitation. Not to mention the changes required at home to allow Cailey to continue her recovery in a safe and comfortable environment.

 

We don’t know yet if Cailey will be able to walk again but we do know that we will try our best to give her everything we possibly can to ensure the best chance of recovery so she can hopefully one day get back to doing all the things she loves like swimming, cricket, tennis and hanging around on the monkey bars.

 

We would like nothing more than to take Cailey and Blake on a family holiday once Cailey has recovered from her treatment and rehab. And, Dan has finally given in to the constant requests for a puppy for our family!

 

We have a long road ahead for our family but Cailey is strong and brave and has amazed us with her resilience and her ability to take what comes her way, and to be able to keep smiling her big, bright smile .