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Danielle's Journey of Hope

This page is for you, our family and friends, to keep you up to date with Danielle's progress through chemotherapy treatments for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, also known as ALL.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile,a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
L.F. Buscaglia








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Journal

Sunday, January 18, 2009 11:01 AM CST

So much has happened since my last update...sometimes life just gets away from me and I don't make the time to write down my thoughts.

The kids had a magical Christmas spent with family and friends. The schedule is always hectic, but at the end of the day we cannot help but be thankful that we were able to experience chaos for a day (hmmm, that actually seems to be every day). There was a time, not too long ago, that we were confined to the walls of our home in an attempt to protect Danielle. We had hard decisions to make when the hoidays and special occasions arrived and many times they did not make us happy.

Even though time has past and Danielle is better, the days of Danielle being on treatment will always be a part of our lives. They changed us forever and are memories that cannot be erased.

Danielle continues to be a joy to the staff at school - it seems everyone knows her and everyone loves her. She is a happy child who always has a smile on her face and always has a story to tell. Most of the time she talks so fast we have a hard time understanding her, but we usually get the general idea. She is excelling in her studies and she is a sponge when it comes to learning new things.

Ashli has been potty training (finally the last experience I will have with this task) and has been accident free for 5 days. This is something that I never thought was going to happen because she is one stubborn, independant little girl. She knows what she wants and she makes it abundantly clear and potty training has not been on her agenda.

Danielle just celebrated her 7th birthday...7 years old - I cannot believe it. She was spoiled, as usual, and had a wonderful time at both her friend and family parties.

Now on to the best news of this update...Danielle's clinic visit was last week and she has officially been off treatment for 2 years! WOOHOO! She has graduated into seeing her oncologist every 6 months and she will begin the start up program which will monitor her for the long term effects of chemo. She will have regular echocardiograms to be sure the chemo has not damaged her heart, she will meet with various therapists and doctors. This will happen once a year which definitely gives me piece of mind. Danielle is only 3 years away from being cured. Anything after that is considered a secondary cancer.

Thank you for checking in on Danielle and our family. We have been blessed in so many ways and it makes me so happy when I can report good news about Danielle.



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Hospital Information:

Akron Children's Hospital
One Perkins Square
Akron, OH 44308

Links:

  
http://www.makeachildsmile.org/   An incredible support system for children battling life threatening diseases
http://www.curesearch.org   The name pretty much says it all...


 
 

E-mail Author: kbderyck@sssnet.com

 
 

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