Shiri's Journey of Hope

Welcome to our Web Page. It has been provided to keep people updated about our child, Shiri Casebeer MacPherson. Shiri was diagnosed September 29, 2003 with Wilms Tumour in both kidneys which had spread to both lungs (stage 4/5). Her histology was initially identified as favourable, however, in Feb 04, as a result of pathology results received after her left kidney and portions of her right kidney were removed, a decision was made to treat Shiri as unfavourable histology, diffuse anaplasia, and a new chemo routine began. After five major surgeries to remove tumors (nothing came easy!), nine months of chemo and two weeks of radiation, Shiri celebrated being off treatment and cancer free in July 2004. We've had a scare or two, but Shiri has been cancer free since being off treatment more than two years ago!

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Journal

Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:46 PM CDT

Greeings from a white, snow-covered Yellowknife. Shiri remains a healthy and happy 6 (almost 7, as she always reminds me) child. Her early August checkup was completely clear - even the lung function test that I asked to have showed no lung problems (I was concerned about the effects of her past radiation on her lungs...she seemed to have a tough time "keeping up" with other kids - now I know it's just because she's a princess). Our monitoring regime is now every 6 months so her next set of tests are late January/early Feb.

So far, no late side effects, no ongoing issues... we are truly blessed in that regard.

The summer months were chaotic, happy and full. Life truly is back to normal for us. Well, perhaps even more chaotic, happy and full than pre-cancer! Cancer in a kid has a way of truly reminding us all about how important it is to just live life every single day. Just the way kids do it.

The above pic is from the Terry Fox Run - Shiri has always been in that run - pre and post cancer - and I think it is even more important than ever to support these types of runs that raise money for, in large part, pediatric cancer research. We have way to many children who die far too young from cancer. We were lucky. Many others are not.

Sheila

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Hospital Information:

Patient Room: http://www. yellowknife.ca

Monitored by Stollery Children's Hospital
Oncology
Living at Home in Yellowknife
NT, Canada

Links:

E-mail Author: marino@theedge.ca; sheila@theedge.ca