Each year over 400,000 children are diagnosed with cancer worldwide — 15,590 in the U.S. That’s 43 children a day in the US. My daughter was 1 of the 43 diagnosed on May 17, 2023.
Hello. My name is Brittney and I am a single mother of 3 beautiful young girls. This is our story..
Our family was just like yours on May 16, 2023. Everything was normal. Kenzi (my youngest) had just had a well child check 2 weeks prior and was 100% healthy. Our lives changed forever around midnight on May 17, 2023.
I’ll never forget taking her to the pediatrician for what I thought was just a weird rash (which i would find out was petechiae) and bruising more easily (I only noticed that the day of her appt but it was on her knees so i thought, ok from crawling). I thought the rash was from new fabric softener, I had just never seen a rash like this. I’ll never forgive myself for waiting. I’ll never forget the doctor saying well let’s run some blood work and go from there. Blood work, for a rash? I’ll never forget her coming back into the room saying her blood work has come back abnormal and you need to take her to Brenner’s ASAP. Nothing else. I’ll never forget her asking if she could pray with us before we go. In that moment, I knew something was wrong with my baby. But cancer never ever crossed my mind. I remember walking to the car, where my mom sat with the older 2, and got in crying telling her “mommy something is wrong with my baby”. I remember them uploading the bloodwork to the portal, and being confused, not really knowing what it meant. Her blood counts were all over the place and her WBC was extremely high. I remember them taking us back as soon as we got there. I remember her normal pediatrician coming to be there with me, as she knew what I was about to be told, and she didnt want me to be alone. But still, I never ever thought cancer. Then the doctor walks in, sits down, holds my hands, and tells me the worst news of my life, “your child has cancer”. 4 of the most heart wrenching words. And not just cancer, but she is high risk, due to what her WBC was. And we would later find out, she has a mutation that made her chances of remission slimmer and her chance of relapse higher. I remember bawling like a baby. I remember not being able to form words. I remember being confused. I remember getting sick. I remember asking why my baby. I remember every second of that painful day, as much as I want to forget. My sweet, innocent baby would be fighting for her life. And I didn’t know how we were going to do this. I am so thankful her pediatrician came to be there with us. The next 8 days would be a blur. Surgeries, new medicines, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions.. things I never wanted to know about. This would be our new “normal”. I was afraid to explain to her 2 older sisters, what we would now be facing. But through it all, they have remained positive and have supported their baby sister with so much love. We have a long journey ahead of us, but I know we can fight this, and leave cancer behind us, forever!!