A year ago, I was just an ordinary mom. I have a regular office work during weekdays and regular household chores to deal with on weekends. Until one day, everything turned upside down. Our daughter, Keira, has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We found out weeks after she turned 4 last year Nov 11, and it was, and still is, devastating. We were so excited because she finally agreed to go schooling with her brother. We would have enrolled her, but now we cannot because battling with a dreaded disease has a lot of restrictions to follow, one of which is to, as much as possible, avoid being surrounded with lots of people, especially strangers who can she acquire viruses or bacteria from. Her and our lives suddenly turned upside down in just a snap.
CANCER: You won’t understand it until you experience it
Thought this was just an ordinary check up.. Go to the doctor..let him/her see your child..he/she will prescribe medication.. you go home.. after a few days, your child is healed and well again. But NO. A terrible and painful news is waiting for us.
November 23rd, Friday. When the horror began.
The doctor ordered a repeat CBC lab test. My husband got the result late afternoon the day prior but the doctor's already out so we have to come back the next day. I planned not to go the hospital, go down to the most convenient bus stop and go to the office.
I planned to let my husband take Keira to the doctor alone, he can handle it. He's a big boy. It's just CBC result, what harm could it bring?
But when we are nearing the hospital, Keira is still sleeping soundly on my chest, a mother instinct in me tells me not to wake her up, let her sleep some more and let her wake up whenever she wants to, go with her to the hospital. And when you're a mom, you wouldn't and couldn't get enough of the comfort and calmness of holding your sleeping child and just watching them.. so cute and angel like.
And then there we were, sitting in the doctor's clinic.. listening to the doctor explaining what her CBC results mean.. advising us that Keira needs to undergo Bone Marrow Aspiration to confirm his suspicion that Keira has Leukemia. My husband asking the expected questions.. the whys, the hows, and all the possible questions he could think of hoping to get a different answer and negating whatever suspicion the doctor has. But me, I cannot recall anything I said at this moment. I Just remember myself holding my child and kissing her like I won't be seeing her for a long time. I just remember looking outside the clinic's window, seeing the busy road full of vehicles, buildings, clear sky, few clouds, houses, trees.. while we were given the most awful news we've ever received. I remember, I couldn't think of anything at that moment, my mind went blank. I just remember bursting into tears and I couldn't stop it.
ALL is curable and the survival rate is high compared with other types of Leukemia
The doctor laid out a 3-year chemotherapy protocol for Keira to follow. To date, Keira is now on-going Maintenance cycle and she finished the hardest one year of of her early life. A lot of hurdles were surpassed, and ALL of them were never easy. Our patience and faith have been tested, our strength almost exhausted, our funds almost ran out. But despite all of these, support and love from our family and even people we hardly know never stop. We continuously receive help, emotional and financial, here and there. We were taught to see and find the silver lining in every bad situation that we will encounter. For us, the silver lining here is that we are not alone. Our baby is not alone with this battle. There is always hope. We just have to believe and trust that there is indeed a rainbow after the rain.