Shailynn J.
Tennesee
Birth Date: August 23, 2015
Diagnosis: B-Cell ALL
Theme: PASTEL Unicorns and Rainbows, & Elsa and Anna from Frozen
Due Date: December 1, 2021
Shailynn's Story
The week of Thanksgiving 2020 Shailynn wasn't feeling well. She was tired, had a stuffy nose, and her lymph nodes in her throat were swollen. I took her to the doctor right away hoping she would be better before Thanksgiving. He looked in her ears, nose, and throat. He had her tested for Strep Throat and the flu. It came back negative. He said that she had some fluid behind both ears and it looked like she had either a virus that turned into a ear infection or cold that had. He prescribed her antibiotics for five days. He said her swollen lymph nodes was probably due to a lot drainage from her cold. He said it would take about 2 weeks for them to start going down.
After 4 days of her being on the antibiotic, she wasn't getting any better. This once active child was now always laying on the couch. She was exhausted and her lymph nodes had gotten a little bigger in size. I took her to the local hospital because her doctor's office was closed the weekend after Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong. Swollen nodes are scary. We waited for hours to be seen and the Doctor only looked at her throat and checked her airway. He never ran any tests. He agreed with what her pediatrician had prescribed and told me that it would just take time for her glands to go down.
That following Monday, I called her Pediatrician's office to ask if she should be seen again? I made an appointment. The night before we were supposed to go to back, she was up late at night in pain complaining that her arm was hurting. I gave her Tylenol. No over the counter pain medicine was working. She was in tears. I have never seen my daughter act like that before. We got ready and drove about 40 minutes away to East Tennessee Children's Hospital to be seen in the emergency room. They ran Mono tests and other blood work. They came in and told me that it looked like cancer. I was in shock. This can't be right! I cried. My beautiful, active, fun loving, so full of life daughter had cancer. This was a nightmare.
Shailynn just completed Delayed Intensification phase in her leukemia ALL B-Cell High Risk treatment plan.Depending on her counts, soon she’ll be starting Interim Maintenance Phase 2. This is a pre-maintenance phase. She’s about two months ... depending on delays with blood counts ... away from maintenance. Maintenance is a year treatment where she will able to start school and be able to be around more people. We are looking forward to maintenance. She will still receive chemo treatments, take oral chemo medications, and lumbar punctures during maintenance. The difference is it will go from two chemotherapy treatments a week to once a month in the maintenance phase.
