How it all started...

Ava had been sick for a few months with a cough and runny nose, pretty typical of a toddler in the middle of the winter.  We had taken her to the doctor several times but we were told it's just a viral thing and nothing to worry about.  Her cold turned into an ear infection and we were given antibiotics for it.  6 days later (3/8/12) the fever was still around so we took her back into the doctor where they changed her antibiotics and sent us home.  Around that same time we noticed that Ava had stopped walking, at first we thought she was lethargic from the fever and that she just didn't have enough energy to walk.  Through the weekend she still wasn't walking but was playing normally, just not walking.  I took her back to the doctor on Monday 3/12/12 where they thought maybe she had developed some sort of infection in her hip.  They weren't entirely sure and wanted us to head up to the ER to have some blood work and x-rays done.

The ER doctor was pretty nonchalant about it which was very frustrating.  He said that with a cold comes swelling and that most likely her muscles were swollen and it was painful for her to walk.  He said that the blood work I was requesting wouldn't really tell us anything other than if there was swelling in her joints.  I stressed to the doctor that we were sent here for blood work and x-rays and that was what I wanted.  I knew something was off, why would a toddler suddenly decide to stop walking when she's been running for 6 months?  After a couple of painful hours of waiting in the ER, x-rays were done and blood was drawn.  Shortly after Ava's x-rays were done the doctor came in with a very serious face (I just figured he was frustrated that nothing came back from the x-rays or blood work and he didn't have an answer for Ava not walking) and said "I'm sorry to tell you this but Ava has Cancer".  That was certainly the most shocking news I've ever had given to me.  I asked if the doctor was sure and he said that 61% of Ava's blood cells had blasts of cancer, so basically 61% of her blood was cancer.  It's one of those things you hear about happening but never actually expect to experience first hand.  Telling Justin was horrible, the phone didn't work in the ER, my cell didn't work there either so I had to FaceTime him to tell him the horrible news.

The next several hours were a whirlwind between oncologists, social workers, nurses, pediatricians, etc., all coming in to discuss what was next.  We found ourselves in the ICS unit of Primary Children's Medical Center a few hours later.  The next day Ava had a spinal tap done to see if the cancer had spread to her spine (luckily it had not), chemotherapy applied to the spinal fluid as a precaution, a sample of her bone marrow taken to determine the exact type of Leukemia and an echocardiogram done to determine if her heart was strong enough to begin chemotherapy.

On Wednesday Ava was officially diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.