Not only was 2020 a year that brought utter fear to the world because of the COVID pandemic, 2020 was the year that brought our family to our knees on multiple occasions as we dealt with an unfathomable diagnosis of leukemia for our four-year-old. Dread, worry and fear consumed us for many, many months as we acclimated to our new life.

Our entire month of August in 2020 was spent in the pediatrician’s office. 7 office visits and 3 trips to the ER to be exact. Madelyn was running a low-grade fever, accompanied by joint pain and the thought was that she simply had a viral infection. Our final trip to our local ER, where labs were drawn, showed devastating news. On September 9, 2020, our sweet, four-year-old, Madelyn was diagnosed with ALL B-Cell Leukemia. In a moment's time, life as we had once known it changed. Madelyn was inpatient at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital for 9 days. She immediately had a port placed, received spinal taps, and began chemotherapy. Madelyn qualified for a trial in which she received immunotherapy. The immunotherapy required Madelyn to be bound by tubes that ran Blina (immunotherapy) into her port 24/7 for 28 consecutive days. Madelyn completed two cycles of this. Madelyn is currently in the maintenance phase of treatment. She will be in maintenance until December of 2022. While we continue to walk the unknown and deal with the many heartbreaks of having a child with cancer, our faith has strengthened immensely, and we see the good in so many areas of our lives that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Family, friends, and the community have been our strength when we were at our weakest. We look at each day as a blessing.

PCFLV has provided a great deal of support for our family, as well as every other family who is battling the unthinkable. They graciously provide holiday meals, have a birthday club for both patients and siblings, and willingly set up various community family events to maintain normalcy for families. We are very thankful for organizations such as PCFLV.

Written by Madelyn’s mom, Erin

Please consider helping children with cancer and others in our community by scheduling a blood donation at Miller-Keystone Blood Center: https://donor.giveapint.org/donor/schedules/zip