We had a FABULOUS Thanksgiving Weekend with my Amazing mom and her entire family. She volunteered to be in charge again this year since it was my Aunt Michelle's turn and she had been dealing with lots of trial and sickness in her little family. The Bagley side is a BIG crowd so its a lot to take on and my mom figured she'd try and help her sister in any way she could... Sooo long story short Angie and I were here little go to helpers, which we just so happen to Love :) My Mom went ALL OUT as usual, but this year she really outdid herself! The dinner was nothing short of Spectacular. That lady can cook thats For Sure and she also knows how to throw a party. She decided we were going to spice thanksgiving up this year and play some games. She always does bingo which is a good time and lots of fun prizes to be won, but this year we played a little game of DEAL OR NO DEAL! I'm SO Sad because I took lots of funny pic's of the whole ordeal, but for some reason my memory card ERASED, Ugghhh!!! For those of you who don't know my mother dearest she is Always a good time. She knows how to make family time SO MUCH FUN, she's incredibly creative and Witty and I just love her:) She had some sweet prizes and even better Duds, it was great because Ang and I didn't even have to rig it and cheat behind the curtain because almost everyone that we wanted to pick the bad curtain did, it couldn't have gone more perfectly! Okay so back to my story (I'm kind of getting side tracked) So all weekend my brothers 2 year old little girl Kensley wasn't feeling so hot. We literally passed her from person to person while she didn't lift her sweet little head off ANYONES shoulder. Her coloring was Terrible, she wouldn't eat, wanting nothing to do with her little cousin Alayna (which is So not like her), etc. Her mom had noticed a few weeks prior that she was in lots of pain during bowel movements, she would go in the corner and get on all 4's and was getting No relief from any of the med's the doctors were giving her. So Jenni (her Mom) continued calling doctor after doctor trying to figure out what was going on with her. They just kept sending her home saying she'll be fine, blah blah blah. Well she wasn't fine. After Thanksgiving they took her to the ER Again trying to find answers. They sent them home once again saying she was dehydrated and had a UTI????? Well the next night they went once again and FINALLY a nurse that was working late that night took one look at her little tummy and KNEW something was wrong. They ran blood tests and they came back with a really high White Blood cell count so they knew they needed to get her to Primary Children's in Salt Lake City as soon as possible. They told Adam and Jenni that her appendix may be about to rupture so they put her and Jen on the Life Flight at 11:30 pm Sunday night. Adam called us (we were still at my moms from the Holiday weekend) and told us what was going on and that he needed my mom to head up to be with Jenni and someone to take Korbin. We Immediately packed everything up and headed north. My mom and Tom went all the way to Primary's while Derrik and I went to Angie's and waited for Adam to get Korbin (his 6 month old little boy). I will forever remember that cold snowy night. I left Angie's around 4 am while everyone was sleeping to meet Adam off the freeway. I got Korbin and headed back, I got a phone call from my mom that Kensley had just got her scans and that things were bad... REALLY BAD! She didn't want me to tell Adam since he had been stuck in a Terrible snow storm that put him a few hrs behind and didn't end up getting to SLC until about 5 am. She didn't want him hearing what they had found while he was still an hr away. Right when the life flight got there they took her in to get a CT scan to see what was up. Well the Doctor came in with the results right after my mom got there and the scan showed that she had a Mass the size of a baseball in her Bladder that was so big it was blocking her urine from leaving the bladder, and instead leaking into the Kidney's and had been poisoning them, hence her excruciating pain for weeks:( The first Doctor gave Jenni little hope and was pretty veg about all the details of if it was cancerous, if it was in her Marrow, or blood etc. He told her they would have to wait until morning to go in and get a Biopsy of the Tumor to know more answers but that it didnt look good from the size of it... I get tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat even thinking about that night. As I walked into Ang's quiet dark house with this sweet little boy in my arms I just fell apart. I kept picturing this tiny little girl and how much pain she must have been in the weeks prior and she couldn't express it, I kept imagining how Jenni must have been feeling up in the hospital, scared, and without her husband, getting news about your 2 year old baby girl, and my heart Ached for Adam and how he must be feeling too, I felt broken for them, an emotion I have never felt before and never care to feel again... Ang came out to see what was going on, we cried together and stayed up all night just sitting in the peace and quiet letting our minds wonder, not knowing how to deal with it all and not knowing what all she was about to be faced with. Little Korbin woke up and played with us for about an hr, he is the sweetest little guy ever and helped put a smile on our faces! Luckily my mom was updating us often over the next 2 days during all the testing, etc. I didn't head up for a few days since we had Korbin, and quite frankly I knew I couldn't go and keep it all together so I waited until Wednesday. I can't even put into words the emotions of walking the halls of the 4th floor at Primary's. Talk about putting life into perspective as I walked past patient rooms, the tiny little people with cute little bald heads, some playing with toys in their beds giving big waves as I walked passed their window, some in rocking chairs with their grandma as she's sleeping while they are wide awake watching movies, and then walking in and seeing Kens in her tiny blue hospital gown all hooked up to tubes and in so much pain and to top it all off seeing my big brother completely broken :( It was a long week to say the least, but amidst the pain and fear we are felt a little bit of comfort! They did a Biopsy and many many scans to see Exactly what they were dealing with etc and all the tests came back on Friday. Kensley was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma aka Cancer in the Bladder! It was at a stage 3 and Malignant, but it wasn't in her marrow or blood. It was confined in her bladder which was Great News!!! Finally after 4 1/2 days they had some answers and were getting the plan of how to go about treatments etc. We were all terrified at the word "Cancer" and "Chemotherapy" especially when your talking about a 2 YEAR OLD having to go through all of the unknowns. But Adam, Jenni, and the rest of us were all so full of HOPE and just wanted to get her better! What a trying time that first month was for Adam's little family, I have a new respect for that boy and how Positive and Strong he's been through this whole journey!
One of my favorite quotes just kept coming to mind and still continues to "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." I know lots of times when we are faced with trials in our lives we sometimes find ourselves just wanting to give up, or asking the big question "WHY ME?" Well, like the poem says, it Hasn't been easy, she has had a catheter since that first day in the hospital, they has been up in SLC living for 7 weeks straight while they did Radiation every morning bright and early, she has had a feeding tube helping her gain a few pounds since she has been so sick from the chemo, she has had a few surgery's to move her ovaries from the radiation in hopes that one day they will be okay and still have eggs. Poor little sweet pea has been through it and I'm SO HAPPY to say she is done with radiation now and her tumor is shrinking, YAY! She still has to do her chemo treatments until October so she still has a long road ahead, but so far we couldn't feel more blessed with her current Progress! She has touched the lives of my Whole Family, her parents, and I'm sure the Faddis Family in a way we never could have imagined. I have a new outlook on my own life and now more than Ever, realize just how fragile and precious life truely is!
"What seems to us as bitter trials are often in ways sweet blessings in disguise."
I don't have many pictures of Kens throughout this whole process, so for those of you who know her and want to check her progress go check out her blog at kensleyking.blogspot.com
4 comments:
She is a doll!! I was reading that during lunch at school and just started getting all teary eyed. I had to hold it together because students kept walking by. How grateful I am for families and that you all have the gospel in your lives! Little children are amazing and I pray she continue to get better! Loved seeing you guys and had a blast at your adorable house. Miss ya already!
Jessica told me a little bit about what was going on back in December and it broke my heart. She seems like the sweetest little girl. Now that I have a baby it makes things like this so hard to read about! I hope she continues to get better. She's an angel :)
I can't even imagine all of this. One of my worst nightmares. I have been following her blog and your family is in our prayers!
It truly breaks my heart to see young ones suffer. It's not fair! Little kids are so amazing, though. I hope your niece continues to do well, and Primary Children's is so great to work with. We'll keep her in our prayers!
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