My sister, Savannah, has been fortunate and blessed to have so many people following her life's story over the past 23 years. There are many people in our small town that know the basic story, childhood tragedies, and triumphs of Savannah Tilton. Long story short, Savannah was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer, an intramedullary astrocytoma, at the age of two. Unfortunately, this was just the start of the medical difficulties Savannah was going to have to face throughout her life. Through pain, several surgeries, years of physical therapy,  chemotherapy, over 50 MRI scans, topped off with numerous hospital stays, Savannah pulled through. My sister has been so tough from the start. Unfortunately, cancer made another unpleasant visit in Savannah's life at the age of five. Creeping back to the forefront of her life were more medicines, treatments, scans, pain, and mental-emotional-physical exhaustion . Through this second round, she never lost her strength, she always persevered, and she pulled through yet again. Many say she is lucky, and she knows she is too, to have survived not one, but TWO rounds of cancer.

Regrettably, childhood cancer creates other issues that affect the rest of your life. One sad effect of the cancer in her spinal cord, caused the outer portion of the bones in her spine to become so curved that it was in the shape of an "S". This health issue is called scoliosis, and it automatically created issues with her body's normal growth and development, while also putting unnecessary stress on her heart and lungs . Her chemotherapy treatments,  scoliosis, and other illnesses and issues lead to a lack of appetite throughout her early years. As a result,  she didn't get the nutrition she needed to properly grow. This left her very petite and small. She was so small, that as a young teen, Savannah had to make additional trips to a specialist in Portland, which resulted in her being placed on growth hormones, which were largely ineffective after the first 6 months.

Later as a slightly older teen, Savannah managed to do copious amounts of research to figure out what she really wanted to do with regards to her scoliosis. Despite all the risks, at the age of 15 she decided to talk to her orthopedic doctor about having Harrington rods placed in her spine to help straighten it out. Straightening her back would allow her to gain a couple inches and most importantly, it would improve her quality of life.  A straighter back would help her breathe better, move better, and would replace the external brace she had grown to despise wearing.

For  a few years things were better, medically. Savannah's cancer was stable and hadn't shown any new growth at her check ups. Life, it seemed, was going smoothly and she was feeling as good as she could. Savannah was physically living life like other, normal people. She felt contentment for the first time in her life....genuinely exceeding at living life for a girl who wasn't supposed to be able to walk, much less be alive.

A few years down the road, Savannah received great news, she was expecting a baby!!! After years of uncertainty, wondering if her treatments had left her infertile or not, she had a little miracle inside of her. She could feel the baby move around very early in the pregnancy, and she grew the most adorable, visible, little baby bump! Not only could she feel the baby growing and developing inside her belly, she also found out she was having a boy. Her son would become the second grandbaby in the family, but he would be the first boy to come from one of the six of us daughters!! She made it so far with this little man, but unfortunately at 16 weeks in her pregnancy, her body and organs could only take so much to help this baby grow. She ended up losing a beautiful son she named Beckett, on February 9th, 2018. As if the loss of her son was not enough, Savannah continued to bleed for weeks and weeks, leading to the need for her to have a D & C procedure done to retrieve some placenta pieces that had been left behind inside of her, causing her to continue bleeding. More medical bills and missed time from work after such a tragic event, proved to be a time of immense grief, pain, depression, and the loss of some hope. But, while Savannah struggled with the loss of her son as any normal mother would, she held herself together as well as she always had, despite the pain, grief, and loss of feeling like a "true woman". After consultation with her OB/GYN they talked about the possibility of another pregnancy and spoke about a procedure (cervical stitch) that could be placed to help her remain pregnant for as long as possible, hoping that the next time she became pregnant, she could at least make it to 24 weeks or more, so her next baby could be held in the NICU, to help increase the chances of fulfilling her dream of physically being able to become a mother. More good news, and unexpected at that, another positive pregnancy test!! With more conversations with her OB/GYN and a conversation with a specialist from Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Northern Light, EMMC, they decided they would definitely attempt the cervical stitch and try their best to keep her pregnant. She made it to sixteen weeks and found out she was having another son!! Another couple of weeks passed without incident, but very suddenly some things start to slip. Unfortunately, with the stitch comes risks... one of those being infections. Mid September Savannah wasn't feeling well, had a fever, and labor symptoms. After admission to the hospital it was realized that she was in fact going into labor due to an infection in her uterus and was about to have her second son, at 19 and a half weeks, with NO other options. Losing one baby is hard enough on anyone, yet here's this girl that has already been through so much, and is yet again going to suffer another great loss. Savannah gave birth to another beautiful little baby boy, Liam, on September 20th, 2019. After getting fluids in her and getting rid of the infection, Savannah thought she could catch a break, mentally and physically, and try to get herself back to where she needed to be. After still bleeding for almost two months after the loss of Liam, she was called into the doctor's office once again. This doctor's visit did not end as easily as the one after her previous pregnancy. After bleeding for just under 8 weeks, she began to bleed an immense amount of blood at the doctor's office and was urgently transported to the hospital for an emergency
D & C procedure. Due to the severity of blood loss, she required a blood transfusion, procedures to staunch the bleeding and save her uterus, overnight stays in the hospital, and then some anxiety reared its ugly head.  A very scary time for her loved ones, and obviously for Savannah who was in shock for most of this time.

A couple of months go by, with life seemingly running quite normally. Savannah, still holding her head high, was coping with grief and managing her anxiety, while refusing to let the bad things in life bring her down. No matter how hard it is to keep her head above water, Savannah has made tremendous, admirable efforts to remain tenacious through it all. After talking with her doctor,  they decided her uterus was not fit to hold babies, and that it was not a good idea to try and get pregnant ever again, due to all the risks and complications, it just wasn't safe. To prevent further loss, as well as life threatening situations, she agreed to have her fallopian tubes removed. She scheduled a date for the procedure. Everything seemed to be going fine as she got ready for her procedure, and things seemed to go well during her surgery. But, medically, life is messy, and it seems that Savannah cannot catch a break. She experienced dehydration that has led to other medical issues, and is currently (1/3/20) in the hospital, and has been admitted overnight to try and solve the issues that have come up.

Savannah is my sister and I am in awe of how she is able to remain so strong, but she has been fighting so many crazy battles over the course of her life, that her mind just keeps re-hashing these events, which puts her under an enormous amount of stress. She will always remember these events, especially the loss of her sons and her life-threatening blood loss. My family and I want to take some of the pressure of the past 2 years off from her shoulders. The last thing she needs right now is to have to worry about medical bills, missing more work, which means increased worry about paying her bills off to get back some financial freedom and relief, to help her heal mentally, emotionally, and physically. She is still paying off medical bills from her FIRST miscarriage and hospital stay, from almost two years ago. Anything helps, and as a family,  we are doing what we can, but it is not enough to relieve the stress and overwhelming responsibility she feels and stresses over to pay her bills off. We would do more for her ourselves, as a family, if we could. Thank you in advance to everyone for reading and sharing Savannah's story. If you can donate to help her out, that is an amazing bonus. We sincerely appreciate any all help and support!♡