Taylor S.
Oklahoma
Birth Date - March 9, 2001
Diagnosis - Ewing's Sarcoma
Taylor's Story
In May 2018, Taylor had been complaining of hip pain. She was a somewhat active teenager, playing basketball and working at a vet clinic where she worked with large dogs. This pain seemed to keep nagging her so I took her to see her doctor. They took an x-ray but couldn't find anything and chalked it up to growing pains.
In July she woke up in the middle of the night screaming in pain. I took her to the ER where they diagnosed it as sciatica. The very next night she awoke again in the same way so I took her to a different ER. They did an MRI and found an abnormality on her right femur. We were put in touch with the Shriners Hospital because they thought it was a bone infection. We went to St. Louis two days later where they took their own images. They immediately had us go to Barnes Jewish Hospital for a bone biopsy. The oncologist there believed it wasn't cancer, but perhaps a deformity or infection in the bone. We waited four days for results. When the nurse called she said it was Ewing's Sarcoma.
Ewing's Sarcoma is a very rare childhood cancer that can only be treated with the most aggressive forms of chemotherapy. They referred us to St. Jude Hospital. We were able to be seen at their affiliate in Tulsa at the St. Francis Children's Hospital. Taylor has been through 3 rounds of chemo, all which result in a fever or complication of some sort. She has to spend an additional week in the hospital, many times in isolation.
Taylor will be going to Memphis for surgery sometime in December to replace her right hip joint and a portion of her femur. She then will return for more rounds of chemo. They predict she will have treatment until July of 2019.
"Taylor loves it!! She's actually in the hospital right now, and she just went on and on about how it's the perfect size and weight. She couldn't believe people that don't know her would go to so much trouble. She wanted me to thank everyone. It means so much to us all."
