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Cierra's History~
Cierra was originally diagnosed June
13, 1999 with stage 4 Neuroblastoma. The tumor was the size of a football in her abdomen and it had spread to her bones and
bone marrow. They gave us a 10% chance of a cure! Upon diagnosis, she underwent a phase III clinical trial, which included
5 rounds of high dose chemotherapy, tumor resection, localized radiation to the abdomen (which we had all done at Hershey
Medical Center.) It was then time for the stem cell transplants. At that time, we would have been the first to receive one
at Hershey so we decided to go to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). We had the first transplant 11/99 and then came
home for two weeks over Christmas and new Years and went back in for the second transplant 1/2000. We spent a loong time in
the hospital for this transplant (about 3 months) due to the full body radiation and all the side effects. She was very
sick. During these past 7 months, she experienced many complications, including pancreatitis, ascitis (the abdominal cavity
fills with fluid to the point where she has breathing complications and the fluid has to be drained), and many more. She was
considered to be in remission from 11/99, before her transplants even started but because this cancer almost always returns,
we did the transplants as insurance anyway. We then followed that with 6 months of taking retinoic acid at home in a pill
form. We had to stay in isolation for 6 months following the transplants because her immune system could not fight off infections.....
WE MADE IT!!!
Treatments
are done. Cierra's in remission and although there's a long road ahead of us, the worst is behind us and we are ready to get
on with life. As time goes by, Cierra needs physical threrapy to walk again and needs a feeding tube because she won't eat.
She still suffers from ascites and needs hearing aids due to the chemo. Eventually she recovers, as always, and we have a
pretty close to normal life back. Cierra starts kindergarten and does all the things other kids can do. We are put back in
the hospital a couple times with septic shock, where she became very sick and had to go to intensive care. As always, Cierra
pulls through as if nothing ever happened! We get monthly check ups to check to see if her cancer has returned. After a year,
we only get tests for cancer every three months. We then hit the three year mark of being in remission, which is a huge
milestone, since most relapses happen within the first three years of diagnosis but were not really considered cured til 5
years, so were not out of the woods yet...
Check out "Cierra's Journey" to read entries from relapse on...
XOXO
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