Sabrina's Journey with Leukemia
Donation protected
The Simoes family is in need of your financial support! Nora, Sabrina's mother, is only able to work half of what she used to work, but expenses have significantly increased. Any assistance you can provide would be used for the following: childcare (although either Dario, Sabrina's father, or Nora are always home, an additional person must also be present to assist with their two other young children), home repairs, cleaning (everything must be sanitized because any virus could put Sabrina in the hospital), and LOTS of medical bills.
Please help us spread the word. All prayers, good vibes, and well-wishes are also appreciated. Thank you all in advance for your support. No contribution is too small and any donation amount can help!
Here is a description of Sabrina's condition as described by Nora right after her daughter was diagnosed:
On Wednesday, December 8, 2015, my 2.5 year old baby girl, Sabrina Serene, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with the subtype of Precursor B & is at Low to Standard risk.
Leukemia is a group of cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and results in high numbers of abnormal white blood cells. These white blood cells are not fully developed and are called leukemia cells.
There are four main types of leukemia — acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) — as well as a number of less common types.
ALL is the most common type of leukemia in young children. Standard treatments involve chemotherapy and/or radiation. The survival rate is 85-96% in children.
The cause is unknown.
Due to the nature of the disease and the chemo, she is extremely immune compromised. The chemo's job, in fact, is to wipe her marrow clean of every single cell, thus making her Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) 48 a few days ago, then 33, and soon, 0. The normal value is between 1500-9000 in a healthy person.
Neutrophils fight against infection and represent a subset of the white blood count. She has no ability to fight infection. She is, by nature of the disease and treatment, neutropenic...for now.
Lifestyle: She's on so many different medications so many times a day. We have 1 to 2 doc appointments per week. During these appointments, they'll be monitoring her blood counts, uric acid, potassium, and everything else. This is done either via finger poke, blood draw, or lumbar puncture (needle into the hip under). She may also have more bone marrow biopsies (large needle into her bone marrow, also under deep sedation).
Because of the excessive number of blood draws and how traumatic and painful this can be for a child, she has a peripherally inserted central catheter (called a picc line). A PICC is inserted in a vein in the arm and extends all the way toward the heart through larger veins, until the tip rests near the heart. Blood is drawn through this instead of a needle poked into her arm.
She can't play with kids yet. We can't have more than 1-2 people over. We can't go to the mall, store, market, church, school, bday parties, or any place else that's crowded. No one who is or was sick can be near her until her ANCs are up. They aren't expected to be up for 8mos or longer.
She is expected to undergo chemotherapy treatment for 2-3 years. If she's cancer free for 5 years with no relapses during that time, she will be declared CURED.
Please help us spread the word. All prayers, good vibes, and well-wishes are also appreciated. Thank you all in advance for your support. No contribution is too small and any donation amount can help!
Here is a description of Sabrina's condition as described by Nora right after her daughter was diagnosed:
On Wednesday, December 8, 2015, my 2.5 year old baby girl, Sabrina Serene, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with the subtype of Precursor B & is at Low to Standard risk.
Leukemia is a group of cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and results in high numbers of abnormal white blood cells. These white blood cells are not fully developed and are called leukemia cells.
There are four main types of leukemia — acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) — as well as a number of less common types.
ALL is the most common type of leukemia in young children. Standard treatments involve chemotherapy and/or radiation. The survival rate is 85-96% in children.
The cause is unknown.
Due to the nature of the disease and the chemo, she is extremely immune compromised. The chemo's job, in fact, is to wipe her marrow clean of every single cell, thus making her Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) 48 a few days ago, then 33, and soon, 0. The normal value is between 1500-9000 in a healthy person.
Neutrophils fight against infection and represent a subset of the white blood count. She has no ability to fight infection. She is, by nature of the disease and treatment, neutropenic...for now.
Lifestyle: She's on so many different medications so many times a day. We have 1 to 2 doc appointments per week. During these appointments, they'll be monitoring her blood counts, uric acid, potassium, and everything else. This is done either via finger poke, blood draw, or lumbar puncture (needle into the hip under). She may also have more bone marrow biopsies (large needle into her bone marrow, also under deep sedation).
Because of the excessive number of blood draws and how traumatic and painful this can be for a child, she has a peripherally inserted central catheter (called a picc line). A PICC is inserted in a vein in the arm and extends all the way toward the heart through larger veins, until the tip rests near the heart. Blood is drawn through this instead of a needle poked into her arm.
She can't play with kids yet. We can't have more than 1-2 people over. We can't go to the mall, store, market, church, school, bday parties, or any place else that's crowded. No one who is or was sick can be near her until her ANCs are up. They aren't expected to be up for 8mos or longer.
She is expected to undergo chemotherapy treatment for 2-3 years. If she's cancer free for 5 years with no relapses during that time, she will be declared CURED.
Organizer and beneficiary
Heather Maguire
Organizer
Anaheim, CA
Nora Simoes
Beneficiary