HELP KYISHA HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Donation protected
Recently we heard that one of our local families from our Kindy Patch Kindergarten was going through the hardest of times with their beautiful 2 year old daughter Kyisha diagnosed with Leukemia. And to add to the shock of such a terrible disease, treatment had to be halted as poor Kyisha came down with a secondary infection that affected her facial bones. No child should be fighting for their life at such a young age and missing out on their childhood.
Our small community is rallying behind the family with local businesses getting together to help support the family. We at La Vie Property Solutions are honoured to be able to help in any way we can and have pledged to donate as individuals and as a business to help this lovely family bring some joy back to their lives over the Christmas period - anything you can do to help would be so much appreciated.
Please read Kyisha's parent's story below and help us raise some deperately needed funds to help Kyisha's family give their children the Christmas they deserve.
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Kyisha’s Journey
Early may 2017 we all had the general cold/flu, Kyisha was still quite sick still for a couple of weeks. In this time we also noticed bruising in the most weirdest spots. We took her to the doctors with a general fever and very lethargic.
Doctor suggested a urine infection, but would do bloods just in case. That evening whilst having dinner the doctor rang advising Kyisha has leukemia and needs a blood transfusion immediately.
We rushed her into emergency, they were waiting for us. Kyisha was hooked onto bloods within a few minutes of getting there. There were about 10 nurses and doctors all around putting cords and machines onto Kyisha and asking a lot of questions. All extremely over whelming. We stayed in emergency all night in an isolated room. In the morning we were moved to the oncology ward.
There both Jay and I had a meeting with the doctors explaining her diagnosis and was told she was high risk leukemia (ALL) acute lymphoblastic leukemia and her treatment from here, which is about 2 years to get rid of this horrible disease. (Leukemia basically is cancer of the bloods)
The next day we were asked to sign consent forms to start chemotherapy as she needed it immediately. The most painful decision as we were left with no choice but to sign to start treatment as she did not have much time. An hour after signing we started chemo straight away. She got sick straight away, became bed ridden, not interested in food, slept and cried for about a week and a half. At that time she developed swelling around her lip and nose.
As the days after that progressed the swelling got worse to the point she was unrecognisable. We had ENT doctors (Ears, nose, throat doctors) examining Kyisha under anasethic which they found an invasive fungal infection, which is extremely rare and no one had seen one so invasive before. We had to stop chemo immediately as the chemo had shut down her immune system so she had no immunity to protect against anything (this is called neutropenic)
She had many surgeries clearing the fungal from her nose. Her septum was removed as the fungal had damaged/killed this area. It then spread to her palate which the ENT team cleared again in a few more surgeries. At this stage we had one option left, which was to find the right blood type donor to collect white blood cells (called neutrophils) to quickly boost her immune system to make her body produce her own to start battling this invasive fungal infection.
Jay (dad) was the perfect match. This involved a day of testing, hooked up to a machine that passes his blood through, collects the white cells and puts the rest of his blood back into him. The same day of white cell collection from Jay (dad) Kyisha had another surgery for the fungal infection, to which she aspirated in theatre (aspirated means as she was being anesthetise and going to sleep she vomited and swallowed some vomit into her lungs) from theatre she was taken to PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) as she has no immunity and swallowed vomit into her lungs she got a chest infection. Lucky the white cells from dad were on their way so they were transferred into Kyisha this helped with fighting the fungal infection, helping her body produce her own white cells and also helping to fight this chest infection.
She returned back to the ward 2 nights later. She had to receive another dose from Jay, by then we had to find another donor as only 1 donor can donate white cell three times. As jay could only donate one more time we found a special donor which was Mrs Bridget’s husband (Brianna’s teacher) his collection was the last as Kyisha’s body started producing her own white cells from there. A few days later her pain increased, we asked ENT to come back and have another look. They were reluctant to as they didn’t want to cause any more damage. As every time they go into her nose/mouth area it can cause infection. But we both had a gut feeling things were not right. So they went in again to reassure us.
Straight after surgery the doctors came up to us in the ward and gave us the most heart breaking news to hear again as a parent. The fungus had spread into her bone which killed blood supply and was spreading rapidly. The only thing left to do was to remove her hard pallete and the whole inside of her nose from bottom of pallete. There were many tests to complete before doing this surgery . MRI, CT scan to see if it was spreading anywhere else and if the surgery would help. Surgery went ahead she was given 20% survival rate from this procedure and the recovery. She was under for 5-6 hours, she had many teams working on her. Dentist, plastic surgeons, ENT, oncologist etc.
After surgery she was sent to (PICU) intensive care to recover. (standard protocol after a major surgery) she spent 1 night hooked up to a machine which was breathing for her to give her body a rest. The next day the breathing tube was taken out and they started to wake her slowly. As she woke and asked for mummy her first words were (mummy can I watch paw patrol) it was incredible to hear and we knew she was ok. She spent one more night in ICU and was transferred back up to her ward the next day. She slowly started to improve in the ward where she was communicating, laughing and wanting to play with her sister. This was amazing to see as she had been bed ridden, no communication, in extreme pain and crying most nights. She improved that much we were allowed to go out for a walk to south bank. The next day we were told we could go home as she had improved so much.
Once home we quickly learnt things were not easy. She is on 15 types of medication throughout the day and night as well as being hooked up to a nasal gastric tube to feed through her nose as she is not allowed to eat through the mouth, as it may cause infection to the area which has been removed. But we made it work as the improvement she showed was incredible to see. She started walking again and being back to her cheeky self.
This was us for 4 weeks knowing in the background we had to start chemo soon. Which we were extremely worried about as it drops her immunity making her susceptible to catch anything or for the fungal to come back at any time. We are at that stage now. She has been in and out of hospital for the past 3 weeks. Constant vomiting at home, which feels like every 5 minutes, high temps when she hits temps of 38 degrees we have an hour to get to the hospital to give her antibiotics to fight any infection or fever she has. As she has a high temp and no immunity. Her treatment from this stage will take 2.5 years as well as reconstruction of her nose and pallete, which they cannot do until she is in a good place with her leukemia, as the risk of infection is too high.
We receive a lot of lovely messages of support and just knowing how Kyisha is. We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers, please understand the life is extremely different, constantly in and out of hospital, check-ups can take a whole day, chemo, blood transfusion and doctors consultations, medications, feeding and vomiting from chemo at home keeps us very busy.
We will try to keep updates as best as we can but things change constantly and quickly. Once again thank you for your lovely messages of support, thoughts and prayers.
Shirley-Anne and Jay xxxx
***********************************************************
Thank you in advance for your support.
Lots of love
La Vie Property Solutions and the local community of Greater Springfield
Our small community is rallying behind the family with local businesses getting together to help support the family. We at La Vie Property Solutions are honoured to be able to help in any way we can and have pledged to donate as individuals and as a business to help this lovely family bring some joy back to their lives over the Christmas period - anything you can do to help would be so much appreciated.
Please read Kyisha's parent's story below and help us raise some deperately needed funds to help Kyisha's family give their children the Christmas they deserve.
*********************************************************
Kyisha’s Journey
Early may 2017 we all had the general cold/flu, Kyisha was still quite sick still for a couple of weeks. In this time we also noticed bruising in the most weirdest spots. We took her to the doctors with a general fever and very lethargic.
Doctor suggested a urine infection, but would do bloods just in case. That evening whilst having dinner the doctor rang advising Kyisha has leukemia and needs a blood transfusion immediately.
We rushed her into emergency, they were waiting for us. Kyisha was hooked onto bloods within a few minutes of getting there. There were about 10 nurses and doctors all around putting cords and machines onto Kyisha and asking a lot of questions. All extremely over whelming. We stayed in emergency all night in an isolated room. In the morning we were moved to the oncology ward.
There both Jay and I had a meeting with the doctors explaining her diagnosis and was told she was high risk leukemia (ALL) acute lymphoblastic leukemia and her treatment from here, which is about 2 years to get rid of this horrible disease. (Leukemia basically is cancer of the bloods)
The next day we were asked to sign consent forms to start chemotherapy as she needed it immediately. The most painful decision as we were left with no choice but to sign to start treatment as she did not have much time. An hour after signing we started chemo straight away. She got sick straight away, became bed ridden, not interested in food, slept and cried for about a week and a half. At that time she developed swelling around her lip and nose.
As the days after that progressed the swelling got worse to the point she was unrecognisable. We had ENT doctors (Ears, nose, throat doctors) examining Kyisha under anasethic which they found an invasive fungal infection, which is extremely rare and no one had seen one so invasive before. We had to stop chemo immediately as the chemo had shut down her immune system so she had no immunity to protect against anything (this is called neutropenic)
She had many surgeries clearing the fungal from her nose. Her septum was removed as the fungal had damaged/killed this area. It then spread to her palate which the ENT team cleared again in a few more surgeries. At this stage we had one option left, which was to find the right blood type donor to collect white blood cells (called neutrophils) to quickly boost her immune system to make her body produce her own to start battling this invasive fungal infection.
Jay (dad) was the perfect match. This involved a day of testing, hooked up to a machine that passes his blood through, collects the white cells and puts the rest of his blood back into him. The same day of white cell collection from Jay (dad) Kyisha had another surgery for the fungal infection, to which she aspirated in theatre (aspirated means as she was being anesthetise and going to sleep she vomited and swallowed some vomit into her lungs) from theatre she was taken to PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) as she has no immunity and swallowed vomit into her lungs she got a chest infection. Lucky the white cells from dad were on their way so they were transferred into Kyisha this helped with fighting the fungal infection, helping her body produce her own white cells and also helping to fight this chest infection.
She returned back to the ward 2 nights later. She had to receive another dose from Jay, by then we had to find another donor as only 1 donor can donate white cell three times. As jay could only donate one more time we found a special donor which was Mrs Bridget’s husband (Brianna’s teacher) his collection was the last as Kyisha’s body started producing her own white cells from there. A few days later her pain increased, we asked ENT to come back and have another look. They were reluctant to as they didn’t want to cause any more damage. As every time they go into her nose/mouth area it can cause infection. But we both had a gut feeling things were not right. So they went in again to reassure us.
Straight after surgery the doctors came up to us in the ward and gave us the most heart breaking news to hear again as a parent. The fungus had spread into her bone which killed blood supply and was spreading rapidly. The only thing left to do was to remove her hard pallete and the whole inside of her nose from bottom of pallete. There were many tests to complete before doing this surgery . MRI, CT scan to see if it was spreading anywhere else and if the surgery would help. Surgery went ahead she was given 20% survival rate from this procedure and the recovery. She was under for 5-6 hours, she had many teams working on her. Dentist, plastic surgeons, ENT, oncologist etc.
After surgery she was sent to (PICU) intensive care to recover. (standard protocol after a major surgery) she spent 1 night hooked up to a machine which was breathing for her to give her body a rest. The next day the breathing tube was taken out and they started to wake her slowly. As she woke and asked for mummy her first words were (mummy can I watch paw patrol) it was incredible to hear and we knew she was ok. She spent one more night in ICU and was transferred back up to her ward the next day. She slowly started to improve in the ward where she was communicating, laughing and wanting to play with her sister. This was amazing to see as she had been bed ridden, no communication, in extreme pain and crying most nights. She improved that much we were allowed to go out for a walk to south bank. The next day we were told we could go home as she had improved so much.
Once home we quickly learnt things were not easy. She is on 15 types of medication throughout the day and night as well as being hooked up to a nasal gastric tube to feed through her nose as she is not allowed to eat through the mouth, as it may cause infection to the area which has been removed. But we made it work as the improvement she showed was incredible to see. She started walking again and being back to her cheeky self.
This was us for 4 weeks knowing in the background we had to start chemo soon. Which we were extremely worried about as it drops her immunity making her susceptible to catch anything or for the fungal to come back at any time. We are at that stage now. She has been in and out of hospital for the past 3 weeks. Constant vomiting at home, which feels like every 5 minutes, high temps when she hits temps of 38 degrees we have an hour to get to the hospital to give her antibiotics to fight any infection or fever she has. As she has a high temp and no immunity. Her treatment from this stage will take 2.5 years as well as reconstruction of her nose and pallete, which they cannot do until she is in a good place with her leukemia, as the risk of infection is too high.
We receive a lot of lovely messages of support and just knowing how Kyisha is. We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers, please understand the life is extremely different, constantly in and out of hospital, check-ups can take a whole day, chemo, blood transfusion and doctors consultations, medications, feeding and vomiting from chemo at home keeps us very busy.
We will try to keep updates as best as we can but things change constantly and quickly. Once again thank you for your lovely messages of support, thoughts and prayers.
Shirley-Anne and Jay xxxx
***********************************************************
Thank you in advance for your support.
Lots of love
La Vie Property Solutions and the local community of Greater Springfield
Organizer
Tori Sayer
Organizer
Carole Park QLD
