The words no parent wants to hear

(March 14, 2012)"The biopsy showed that Annie has cancer..." Dr. Bradley said as Chris and I sat in his office. I went numb head to toe. I looked at Annie in the exam chair. She was happily playing with a puzzle on her lap. How could this be? She hadn't been sick or had any change in her overall health or behavior--just an "owie" in her mouth that she had shown to me a few weeks before. Dr Bradley explained that the tumor on Annie's soft pallet, which he had removed the previous week, was a type of cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma. We learned a lot in the next few minutes, then Dr. Bradley sent us on our way to Primary Children's Medical Center to meet with the oncologists. Time seemed to freeze. We were moving in slow-motion, still trying to understand what the doctors were explaining to us. Annie has embryonal type rhabdo, which thankfully, is the most treatable of this type of sarcoma. It typically appears in children ages 4-10 and the prognosis in this age range is over 70%. The doctors said that the fact that I discovered the tumor and got it removed early on is a huge factor in Annie's treatment and recovery. I am thankful that when Chris and I looked at it in her mouth, we decided to take her to the doctor that same day.

The next ten days were spent getting an MRI, bone scan, PET/CT scan, and blood tests. Fortunately, there was no evidence of cancer anywhere else in her little body. A surgery was scheduled to remove more tissue from her soft pallet, place a PowerPort (Google it, it's fascinating), and do a bone marrow aspirate. Because the ENT at Primary's, Dr. Meier, was able to remove even more of the soft tissue with cancer cells on Annie's pallet, her treatment will be six months, as opposed to a year-long chemotherapy treatment. The bone marrow aspirate came back from the lab with no evidence of disease. Annie's first chemo treatment was March 27th, and we have a long road ahead. Four rounds of strong chemo, followed by a reduced chemo and radiation. If all goes well, Annie should be finishing treatment right around her birthday, September 21st.