In April 2018, Danna at the age of 22 and studying trombone at Sibelius Academy in Finland, was diagnosed with Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, located in her sinuses. Danna’s aggressive treatment plan consisted of a year of intense chemotherapy, 33 rounds of radiation, many nasal biopsies, repeated scans and numerous unpleasant side effects.
In May of this year after routine scans, they found more cancer and did surgery to remove her parotid gland and a lymph node, followed by another 25 rounds of radiation. She was finally able to begin looking for work again, after recovering from surgery and with the worst of covid behind, and then more recently, Danna started feeling out of breath, very tired and some soreness. Initially thinking it was side effects from the more recent radiation, checked in with her doctors, who did more scans and found a tumor in the lining of her lungs which was causing a buildup of fluid in her lungs, shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue and tiredness. They gave Danna 4 days of chemo, and removed 4 1/2 liters of fluid over the course of several days, then another chemo infusion. Doctors plan to put in a Denver drain so that we can remove lung fluid at home, that surgery was scheduled for last Tuesday however it was postponed for a second time due to an extremely low white blood count and a bacterial infection in her blood. Danna has been hospitalized since then and has been receiving antibiotics and injections to boost her white blood cells. They did a blood transfusion on Wednesday and today they are giving her thrombocytes and another blood transfusion to try to increase platelets and hemoglobin. Danna’s right lung is filled with fluid again but because of her low numbers, it would be dangerous to drain. Her left lung is functioning well so with additional oxygen she is able to breathe. Her doctors plan to do surgery for the drain this Tuesday providing her numbers increase and it is safe to proceed. The bottom line is they are trying to control the tumor growth and get her stabilized so that she is able to fly and I can bring her home.
