Support Filly's fight against Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia

Hello everyone, my name is Kate, I’m graces sister and I’m here to fill everyone in on what’s happening with this family that we love so much.

With what started as Grace noticing how easily she was bruising last Monday 4/8 has resulted in a diagnosis of Leukemia and the start of treatment by Friday the 12th.

luckily, Chicago is full of amazing healthcare providers and state of the art medicine. And they are receiving top notch care at Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital. We are so very lucky that the pathologist was able to identify this extremely rare form of Leukemia called Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML). This is a rare subtype of AML Leukemia and accounts for only 10% of all AML diagnosis. Furthermore, we learned yesterday that she has the even rarer high risk version of this APML. Treatment was started and has been evolving as her body presents this leukemia uniquely to herself. Right now they are mitigating risks associated with her treatment 1 week at a time. Luckily, even though this is high risk, the prognosis remains very good. Filomena is a healthy child and has not needed too much support yet and has reacted very well to the support she has received.

Amazing, the treatment and **cure** for this Leukemia is through Retinol and Arsenic for 30-70 days. The advances in science are truly amazing! She is undergoing chemotherapy in addition to these other medications for 1 week, to help stagger the risks she faces in the initial 4 weeks of treatment.

Grace and Ben are therefore with Filly in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for at least the next 4 weeks.

We are asking for everyone’s help as they navigate these next 4 weeks and then weekly if not daily visits to the doctor after that. The course of treatment is very individualized and will likely change many times. Total treatment time varies and maybe be months up to a few years.

As anyone can image, we have no idea what the exact needs are at this time. But life has to keep moving forward and with it bills need to be paid. Support in whatever way possible would be appreciated. They do have healthcare insurance and Ben has a good job so the expenses that are foreseen are for all of the in between things like: anything Filly needs to keep her occupied and as content as possible, support for bringing in people to help support them, deductibles, food, gas etc.

I will be providing updates here for everyone as they come in.

https://www.leukaemia.org.au/blood-cancer/leukaemia/acute-promyelocytic-leukaemia/

Of course send all of the love and prayers and good vibes their way as they make their way through this process. We love you and thank you in advance for your love and support.