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Madison Smith's Website - Viewing Journal - Sunday, July 8, 2007 5:58 PM
Thank you for taking time to inquire about Madison and how she is doing. Madison was diagnosed with high risk T-cell Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia on September 24, 2003 at Duke Hospital in North Carolina. She had just turned three at that time. Leukemia is a blood cancer that is not believed by medical professionals to be inherited at this time. She presented with a mass in her chest that encompassed the majority of the upper half of her chest area. The mass was related to the leukemia. It collapsed her left lung and a portion of her right lung and was shutting off the blood flow from her heart to the rest of her body. She was in the pediatric intensive care unit for almost two weeks on a ventilator. We weren't sure then if we would ever have a chance to fight the leukemia. Madi is a true fighter and pulled through! After getting off the vent, Madison was able to achieve remission by the 28th day of treatment. She underwent two and half years of aggressive chemotherapy (protocol 1961) and radiation for the mass. On Christmas Eve 2005, a little over two years after her diagnosis Madison had a chest CT done that revealed that the mass was finally gone! Madison finished her treatment in January 2006. Children that have cancer are not considered "cured" until they have been off treatment with no-reoccurrence for five years. Duke has followed Madison throughout her treatment. She will continue to be followed by Duke. In April 2008 Duke uncovered that Madison has an obstruction in 3 of her veins. The veins involved are the Left innominate vein, the left (lower) internal jugular vein, and her sub-clavian vein. These veins are responsible for carrying her blood back to her heart and hers are 100% occluded. What is going on with her right now is likely a result of the mass she had in 2003. There aren't really any easy fixes for what is going on with her and no real cases that it can be compared to. We are working with Duke in an effort to resolve this issue. In February 2011, Madi moved from in-remission to "CURED" from her disease We've come this far for a reason! Please continue to lift all of us up. The care and concern that we have felt from all of you continues to be an encouragement to us. Thank you...
 
- Allison

Update - Sunday, July 8, 2007 5:58 PM


July 06, 2007

Journal

Well summer is well underway now. We have been having a great summer so far… Madison has been doing great! As we had hoped she finished the school year with straight A’s. We are very proud of her progress this year. She finished the first grade a good reader! At the beginning of the year she was reading very little so this was great progress.

Madison went to Duke for her regular follow up in June. She actually had two appointments. She had her regular cancer follow up and a scoliosis follow up. If Madison’s spine by way of X-ray had not improved from her last visit they had planned to put her in a brace. Since her last visit she had done some physical therapy and some various exercises designed to help her. Her x-ray’s showed marked improvement. The doctor was very pleased with what she saw and said she doesn’t need the brace at this time! We were very happy about this!!!

Duke was concerned about a few bruises that Madi had on her arms that she didn’t know where they came from. I hadn’t really been concerned about them myself until we got there and they were. Usually we go and do blood work and leave before we have the results. This time we stayed and ate lunch at Duke while we waited for her results to come back. Her results came back completely fine. They told us that if she had anymore bruises specifically on her upper extremities to come back and they would run extensive testing on her. Since her appointment June 4th she really hasn’t had any bruises except for one huge one on her face that she got when she fell at a play area at Burger King. So all seems well!

Madison has been to art camp and a couple of bible schools this summer already. She has been enjoying herself. Madi and her sister Maiya will be spending a week with their grandparents this week in the Illinois/St. Louis area. They are both really excited about this. This will be the first time that Madi has been able to do this since she was diagnosed in 2003. While she was on treatment, the distance was just too far if something went wrong. We’re hoping that ten days will not be too long without us. We are also hoping that they will be good. More specifically, that Maiya will be good. She’s something else!

In my last update I shared about some other friends that we made at Duke. They are the Adams family from Cary, NC. Sherilyn relapsed from her 1st bone marrow transplant in February. They were able to get her into remission again to help prepare her for yet another transplant but recently her leukemic cells have been doubling over and over again. Their family could really use some prayers. There have been several articles about this family in the News and Observer and they have a caring bridge website. The site is www.caringbridge.org click on visit a site, go down to the section that says sites created before 2005, the state is NC and the site name is Sherilyn. The site will update on both Sherilyn and her sister Veronica that are both battling Leukemia.

Since last update, Sherilyn has had lots more chemo in an effort to get her into remission so she can go to transplant again. Unfortunately, Sherilyn was only off chemo for about two weeks and they found her bone marrow to be 86% leukemic cells. Duke concluded last week that her body is no longer responding to chemo. It has come back too many times and each time it’s stronger. Duke sent Sherilyn home last week and suggested to her mother that they call Hospice of Raleigh. The family is now trying to enjoy every day they have left together. Sherilyn’s 16th birthday is July 11th. Please pray for this family, their healing, and Sherilyn’s comfort during this time. My heart hurts for what’s happening! My mind can’t seem to leave what’s going on with them. It seems so unfair. Please, please pray.






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