Every time I tell Erika’s story, all of those feelings come back and I get teary-eyed. I don’t mind sharing it with everyone who asks. I think that, even though it makes me sad, it helps me to accept what I can’t control. We have had plenty of moments of deep sadness and crying and then we look at Erika and we gain perspective. Some days are really hard and others not as bad, and, somehow, she is still smiling and that keeps us going. We figured that she’s going through so much and we are just doing life as usual, we can smile too! It has definitely been an adjustment for the entire family. There have been days or weeks that Erika and I didn’t get to see Robert (my husband) or her brother, Trevor, or her sister, Emily. And those days, we miss them dearly, and I know they miss us too. We do try to enjoy the time that we have together and we were fortunate that we were able to spend Thanksgiving at home with family. Many people ask us if there were any signs, and we tell them, nothing that was obvious or none of the typical signs of leukemia: fever, easy bruising, easy bleeding, petechiae, nausea, or vomiting. Erika’s main complaint was belly aches and after a trip to the walk-in clinic, she was diagnosed with constipation and scheduled a follow up appointment two weeks later. Erika had not been eating as much and her heart rate was a little higher than usual and she did have a few nights of night sweats, and she was more tired than usual, but, we attributed this to her recently diagnosed hyperthyroidism. We asked her endocrinologist to move up her follow up lab work due to see if her medication needed adjusting, and she did. It was within days that she started feeling even more tired and even had difficulty getting in/out of bed and in/out of the car. I knew something was not right, but, I thought maybe she had the flu. But, she didn’t have a fever. Thursday afternoon, May 26, 2017, I picked up the kids from summer camp early, they had a friend over to play and wanted to go to the neighborhood park. By the time we were ready to go, Erika said she was too tired and wanted to take a nap, so she stayed home with her brother. Robert came home that afternoon to find Erika still asleep and with a high fever. He immediately took her to the walk-in clinic, they did lab work and sent her home with Tylenol/Ibuprofen. On Friday morning, she wasn’t feeling well, so I took Trevor and Emily to camp and stayed home from work with Erika. Anxiously waiting to hear back from the clinic, I called and they said that I needed to return to speak to the doctors because her lab work was abnormal. I woke Erika up and by this time she was in so much pain all over, I had to carry her everywhere. That’s when I knew, something was terribly wrong. Given her symptoms by the time we got to the walk-in clinic, we were immediately sent to the ER. Once there and more lab work was done, I was given the diagnosis: Leukemia. Robert had gone to pick up Trevor and Emily from camp, so I was alone with Erika when the ER doctor gave us to unfortunate news. I tried telling Robert over the phone, but, tears won over, and I couldn’t. Once he arrived, we both hugged and cried, we were devastated and in shock. This brought back so many memories. Erika is no stranger to challenges. She was born with Down syndrome and apparently that extra chromosome also puts her at higher risk for Leukemia. We were sent via ambulance to Jacksonville, FL for treatment, a two hour ambulance ride. I cried the whole way there: cancer, she’s so young. Erika was in so much pain, she was given a strong pain medicine at the ER and she mostly slept on the way. By the time we arrived in Jacksonville (around 1am on May 28), her lymphnodes were so swollen and she had red bruises all over her ankles and her knees were swollen and she had petechiae (bright red tiny spots in back, neck, belly and arms), she was vomiting and completely pale. It advanced that fast. She was immediately placed on two strong IV antibiotics and IV fluids. Once at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Weaver 4: Oncology/Hematology, we were given the specific diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Erika was scheduled for a spinal tap and chemo and placement of her port (nurses use her port to draw blood and give her chemo treatments). The doctors told us that it will be two and a half years for her to complete her treatment, provided there were no delays, which are common. We agreed to put Erika in a study which allows oncologist throughout the U.S. treating patients with leukemia and Down syndrome who are ages 10 and above (considered high risk) to exchange ideas to improve treatment course. Erika stayed in the hospital for almost a month we continue to travel every other week for chemo treatments and follow up visits with her oncologists at Nemours. She continues to battle daily with mouth sores, headaches, mucositis, belly aches, occasional falls (the spinal chemo can affect her gait). She has also required blood and platelet transfusions and ER visits due to fevers. She has lost all of her hair now, but, that doesn’t seem to bother her as much it may bother others. And, due to her low immunity, she has had to stay home and has a teacher that comes a few times a week (which is as much as she can tolerate right now). Erika is slowly returning to her old sassy self and we hope that she continues to fight hard. She knows that we are here for her and we know that she has many people praying for her as well.