nesser1981
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2011
- Messages
- 712
Keira's WISH TRIP Report can be found here!
Ok, so this was our old PTR and I'd started a new one and asked for this one to be deleted, but they deleted the other one instead. So, I'll update this one again. Its updated now! I think the same information as the first one had.
Sorry for the confusion.
So let me try this all again.
I'm Vanessa, my 6 year old daughter is the one that will be receiving the Make a Wish trip! She has chosen to go to Walt Disney World.
A little background on our family.
I grew up in North Florida, only about 3 hours from Orlando, on the gulf coast. When I was 18 I joined the Air Force, after training in Texas, Arizona and Pensacola I got stationed in Japan. I met my DH there, Sean was also in the service, only he was in the Navy. We spent 3 years in Japan, we got engaged shortly before we left and Sean got out of the Navy. I stated in the Air Force and we moved to Beale AFB in Northern California back in 2003. In April 2004, Sean and I got married. May 2005 Miss Keira arrived. 2006 we moved to my final duty station, Elmendorf AFB, in Anchorage, Alaska. We spent just over 3 years there. Our DS Cooper was born there in February 2008.
I got out of the Air Force in June 2009, after 10 years of service and we moved to Michigan where my DH is from.
March of 2010 we did a quick trip down south to visit some family and take the kids on their very first Disney trip, 1 day to the MK and a breakfast @ Chef Mickey's. Ok, background stuff done. LOL!
During our trip to Florida, Keira had been complaining about her stomach bothering her. We assumed she was constipated. I gave her children's pepto and that seemed to solve the problem. In late March she was still complaining, so we took her to the doctor, he agreed with me and said the same thing, but to bring her back in 2 weeks if she was still complaining.
2 weeks later I noticed her stomach was very swollen while I was changing her clothes, so we took her to the doctor again. This time they sent us for a chest x-ray & blood work, if not better by the morning, call back.
Keira didn't sleep that night, so the next morning we called the doctor, take her to the ER is what they said, we'll let them know you're coming. The local ER called and said to take her to Ann Arbor to the Children's Hospital @ the University of Michigan.
My inlaws & only babysitters were in Florida on vacation, so I stayed home with Cooper who was only 2 at the time. And my poor DH took Keira alone to the hospital. After about 6 hours he finally called me, and I was starting to get nervous. Our lives changed forever on April 8, 2010. He told me the doctors found a large mass around her left kidney and they thought it was cancer! Shock doesn't even begin to describe what I was going through, much less what my poor husband that had to hear this alone was going through. DH's uncle came to stay with Coop while my BIL & SIL drove me to the hospital in a town I barely knew my way around.
When I got there they told us it was probably Wilms Tumor, the best kind of cancer you can get if you're going to get cancer. 94-97% cure rate. Great new right! And it was. Things moved quickly, I got to the hospital around 4pm on a Thursday, Keira went into a 9 1/2 hour surgery on Friday around noon. They removed her left kidney and a 10 cm tumor. She was stage II and went through a pretty easy 18 weeks of chemo. Never loosing her hair or anything. She turned 5 about a month after surgery, She started kindergarten that fall.
Fast forward to May 12, 2011, 9 months since Keira's last round of chemo, our 3rd, 3 month check-up. There is a new tumor, looks like Wilms, 8 cm on her liver. Right smack dab in the middle of her liver. What??? Not again. Chemo will be more intense this time, she'll need radiation, still great cure rate, 75-80% cure rate. Don't worry. 6 months of chemo. On Keira's 6th birthday she had an MRI to get things all figured out.
I won't say chemo was a breeze this time around, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Radiation took 16 rounds, September 28, 2011 they removed the tumor, that had shrank to 2 cm. And then December 29, 2011 she completed her last round of chemo.
Why a MAW Trip
Getting our Dates!
The Game Plan
Specific Plans for Each Park
This survivor photo was taken on her 1 year anniversary of being diagnosed
This summer she got to be a ribbon cutter @ relay for life, but she did loose her hair this time around.
This was Keira about a month after surgery showing off her new upside down t scar
Our Little Super Girl & Superman on Halloween
Our family on Christmas Eve
Ok, so this was our old PTR and I'd started a new one and asked for this one to be deleted, but they deleted the other one instead. So, I'll update this one again. Its updated now! I think the same information as the first one had.
Sorry for the confusion.
So let me try this all again.
I'm Vanessa, my 6 year old daughter is the one that will be receiving the Make a Wish trip! She has chosen to go to Walt Disney World.
A little background on our family.
I grew up in North Florida, only about 3 hours from Orlando, on the gulf coast. When I was 18 I joined the Air Force, after training in Texas, Arizona and Pensacola I got stationed in Japan. I met my DH there, Sean was also in the service, only he was in the Navy. We spent 3 years in Japan, we got engaged shortly before we left and Sean got out of the Navy. I stated in the Air Force and we moved to Beale AFB in Northern California back in 2003. In April 2004, Sean and I got married. May 2005 Miss Keira arrived. 2006 we moved to my final duty station, Elmendorf AFB, in Anchorage, Alaska. We spent just over 3 years there. Our DS Cooper was born there in February 2008.
I got out of the Air Force in June 2009, after 10 years of service and we moved to Michigan where my DH is from.
March of 2010 we did a quick trip down south to visit some family and take the kids on their very first Disney trip, 1 day to the MK and a breakfast @ Chef Mickey's. Ok, background stuff done. LOL!
During our trip to Florida, Keira had been complaining about her stomach bothering her. We assumed she was constipated. I gave her children's pepto and that seemed to solve the problem. In late March she was still complaining, so we took her to the doctor, he agreed with me and said the same thing, but to bring her back in 2 weeks if she was still complaining.
2 weeks later I noticed her stomach was very swollen while I was changing her clothes, so we took her to the doctor again. This time they sent us for a chest x-ray & blood work, if not better by the morning, call back.
Keira didn't sleep that night, so the next morning we called the doctor, take her to the ER is what they said, we'll let them know you're coming. The local ER called and said to take her to Ann Arbor to the Children's Hospital @ the University of Michigan.
My inlaws & only babysitters were in Florida on vacation, so I stayed home with Cooper who was only 2 at the time. And my poor DH took Keira alone to the hospital. After about 6 hours he finally called me, and I was starting to get nervous. Our lives changed forever on April 8, 2010. He told me the doctors found a large mass around her left kidney and they thought it was cancer! Shock doesn't even begin to describe what I was going through, much less what my poor husband that had to hear this alone was going through. DH's uncle came to stay with Coop while my BIL & SIL drove me to the hospital in a town I barely knew my way around.
When I got there they told us it was probably Wilms Tumor, the best kind of cancer you can get if you're going to get cancer. 94-97% cure rate. Great new right! And it was. Things moved quickly, I got to the hospital around 4pm on a Thursday, Keira went into a 9 1/2 hour surgery on Friday around noon. They removed her left kidney and a 10 cm tumor. She was stage II and went through a pretty easy 18 weeks of chemo. Never loosing her hair or anything. She turned 5 about a month after surgery, She started kindergarten that fall.
Fast forward to May 12, 2011, 9 months since Keira's last round of chemo, our 3rd, 3 month check-up. There is a new tumor, looks like Wilms, 8 cm on her liver. Right smack dab in the middle of her liver. What??? Not again. Chemo will be more intense this time, she'll need radiation, still great cure rate, 75-80% cure rate. Don't worry. 6 months of chemo. On Keira's 6th birthday she had an MRI to get things all figured out.
I won't say chemo was a breeze this time around, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Radiation took 16 rounds, September 28, 2011 they removed the tumor, that had shrank to 2 cm. And then December 29, 2011 she completed her last round of chemo.
Why a MAW Trip
Getting our Dates!
The Game Plan
Specific Plans for Each Park
This survivor photo was taken on her 1 year anniversary of being diagnosed
This summer she got to be a ribbon cutter @ relay for life, but she did loose her hair this time around.
This was Keira about a month after surgery showing off her new upside down t scar
Our Little Super Girl & Superman on Halloween
Our family on Christmas Eve
(sorry for hijacking your thread...now we can ALL dream of ice cream though!) 
