Milly

The last month and a half seem like such a whirlwind.  On July 1st, we got the frightening news that our niece, Milly was diagnosed with Leukemia.  This is Sarah's brother's third and youngest child and she is 2 years old.  Our world became wrapped up in daily trips to Vanderbilt Children's hospital to check up on her and spend time with family.  The first piece of news that the doctors gave that first night we were at the hospital is that 85% of children that go through treatment recover fully and never have another issue with leukemia.  That was good news given that Sarah and her brother Chad(yes we have the same name) had lost a high school friend to leukemia.  The first few weeks felt like everything was going on schedule.  They were there two and a half weeks for the first treatment and then the doctors sent Milly home.  Chad and Marty(parents) were glad to be home but it was only to be for 2-3 days.  They took her back to the hospital with complications with a port that had been place in her chest.  The doctors fixed that and sent them back home.  They live an hour and a half away so it's not an easy trip to make.  The night she got back home, she started having a bad belly ache, a fever, and her body started swelling.  They took her back to the hospital where she was admitted for another week and a half.  Her body swelled so much that her little body looked pregnant and she couldn't open her eyes.  The scary part was that the doctors at Vanderbilt said that they hadn't seen this in a child going through leukemia treatment.  On top of this, she had kidney stones.  There were a few nights during this time that we thought that we were going to lose her.  Her body stopped making protein which apparently caused fluids to leak out of veins and capillaries.  We learned that it is called "third spacing".  It is what caused her body to swell so much.  They began to give her protein and she started losing the 14 pounds that she had gained.  She only weighed 28 pounds when she started treatment so this was a LOT of weight to gain.

We have spent so much time praying for her and asking people to pray in the last month and a half.  She is recovering slowly at home.  Evidently the second month of chemo is not as invasive as the first month which is good news.  There are months coming in the two and a half years of treatment that will be tough.  We went to go see her on Friday night and she seems to be in good spirits.  She is smiling which was good for our souls to see.   If you think about it, pray for Milly.  Pray for continued healing.  We have seen the Lord answer prayers over and over again.