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[ hi to everyone that sees this, it’s rowan :-) thank you for all the kind messages, they mean a lot to me and definitely helped me be more positive throughout all this just wanted to mention that since a lot of you are closer to my parents than you are to me, a lot of you know me as my birth name, avery. i no longer use that name and instead i use rowan, but there aren’t any hard feelings since i know a lot of you probably didn’t know haha again, i just wanted to thank you all so much for the support recently, it means a lot to me 🫶 the portion below is written by my dad, so i’m gonna stop here so i’m not hogging all the space on here haha ]
Our daughter Rowan(Avery) Friske was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer on January 19th, 2023. Her mother noticed a swollen neck on Jan 16th the one day she had her hair pulled back and wearing a tank top! We got her in to her primary doctor on Jan 19th and via Ultrasound that same day along with a blood test confirmed suspicions that she had cancer. The following Wednesday she had a CT scan which confirmed the ultrasound results that are 14 year old daughter had a form of lymphoma. The Very next day, she had surgery to obtain a Biopsy from her neck and then a Pet Scan to obtain a baseline figure and also to determine what type of cancer she had. Rowan is handling everything like a super star and has remained so positive over the last couple of weeks. Today we met our pediatric oncologist who is wonderful and that Rowan has been diagnosed with Stage 2 Lymphoma cancer. It is a slow growing cancer and Thankfully it is contained to her neck and upper chest area and has not spread to any of her organs! Dr told us if you are a kid and you have to have cancer, that lymphoma is the one to have!!! The Success rate of treating this cancer is very high and they hope since we caught it early that she will have a full recovery and hopefully a normal life once treatment is done. Tomorrow, February 1st, Rowan will be having surgery to have a Port placed in her chest to administer chemotherapy. Rowan starts chemotherapy tomorrow and will be hospitalized for at least 3 nights which is standard. If she tolerates it well, she will get to come home on Saturday🙏 Rowan’s treatment plan will be one week of inpatient treatment where she is at hospital from Wed-Sat and then one week of outpatient treatment of going to the hospital for one day and then a week of rest with no treatment. Treatment plan is Four x 21 day cycles of chemotherapy. As of now there is no plan for any radiation treatment unless she doesn’t respond to therapy. In between all that, will be lots of blood draws to make sure she is maintaining the proper white and red blood cell counts. Rowan will not be attending school more than likely as her health will be a top priority. She will be allowed to have visitors when she is at the hospital if she is feeling up to it and also while she is at home. Make sure to check in with Tawnya or I before you make plans to visit as it may or may not happen. Our family would like to ask that you keep Rowan in your thoughts and prayers🙏 for a full recovery!!! Rowan is a Fighter and We Plan to Beat Cancer!!!
It’s been awhile since we’ve posted an update but that’s simply because Rowan is doing amazing and has been a very busy teenager doing the things normal teenagers do! ❤️Back at school, just wrapped up LHS marching band/color guard season and is currently taking Driver’s Ed.
As part of her routine care, Rowan had a CT scan and everything looks great. We will see her oncologist quarterly and do a scan every 6 months to ensure her health stays on track while in remission.
Ro is simply amazing, sweet and optimistic…as usual. Our anxiety was “mild” when we were back at the children’s hospital but she was happy to see PT Dan and others from her medical team.
Make A Wish typically likes to grant wishes within a year of remission but they are granting Ro a 6 month extension in hopes their international travel policy opens back up. Her #1 wish is to go to Japan so cross your fingers they’ll be able to make that happen for her.
We wish everyone a happy thanksgiving and upcoming holiday season. There are blessings all around and so much to be thankful for 🫶🏻
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