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Madison Smith's Website - Viewing Journal - Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:00 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, January 25, 2004 7:00 PM


Over the last week or so we have experienced some problems with our server, as a result the site has been down a few times. At one point we thought we lost everything. We apologize for any confusion and appreciate your patience. The site should be back to normal now. I would like to thank my brother Dan for his diligent work in creating and maintaining this site as well for picking up the pieces and restoring everything when it crashed. Without his work this site would not have been possible.

Madison has not had treatment since January 15th. She has not had any fevers and for the most part has been feeling good. We had to take her in on the 19th to have her blood checked they thought that she would be in need of a transfusion. Her hemoglobin was a little low but not low enough to warrant a transfusion.

She is currently scheduled to have treatment both Monday and Tuesday the 26th and 27th. As many of you know North Carolina is currently experiencing some inclement weather and we are unsure as to whether or not we will be able to make it to Duke on Monday and Tuesday. We will see how the roads are and if it appears that we can make it there safely then we will go. Other wise, we will probably end up going on Wednesday and Thursday when it is supposed to warm back up.

As for an update regarding the new baby, on Friday January 22nd we went in for a final ultrasound. We were also supposed to schedule a date to induce so the cord blood team could be sure to be in place. The ultrasound revealed that we are definitely having a girl, a very large girl!

With four weeks left to go, she currently weighs 8lbs 12oz. They said that the ultrasound machine could be off up to one pound in either direction. Either way the doctor is predicting that we will be having a 9 plus pound baby. He said that based on the size of the baby that he didn't feel it was safe to induce unless we absolutely have to.

He assured us that the cord blood will properly be harvested whether the cord blood team makes it in or not. We felt good about this. We had hoped to just let nature take its course anyway. The doctor, like daddy seems to think that it will be in the next two weeks or so. I can't say that I have any particular feeling one way or the other.

We have settled on Maiya Elizabeth for her name and Madi can already say her whole name pretty darn good. She has been practicing! She is very excited!

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