For February, we would like to introduce you to Monroe Pett. Her story as told by her mom, Ashleigh, illustrates several aspects of how life just all of a sudden changes, but we all try to do the best we can. When we received the responses and story, we definitely felt we could relate especially with the distance. One very difficult aspect of childhood cancer treatment is that families must often travel great distances for their children or sometimes even move. It would be wonderful if there were more children’s hospitals that specialized in chemotherapy and radiation. No matter the obstacles and hurdles, we all do this and do the best we can because it is for them. In return, they become our heroes.

One day we were at the Springs, and the next day her eye was completely swollen shut. I took her to a pediatrician because I thought it looked like an allergic reaction. They agreed and told me to give her allergy meds for a few days and it should go away. On day 6, it was not only still present but significantly worse. Her eye was protruding and starting to droop down so I took her to the emergency room. They said it was a stye and referred me to an eye specialist. It was clearly not a stye. The eye specialists took a look and didn't tell me what it was because they weren't sure but they know I needed to take her to the emergency room at children's of Alabama in Birmingham. We were here for 5 days. They ran multiple scans because at this point her eye was protruding and sitting on her cheek essentially. They said it was either cancer or a humangioma. They started talking less and less about hemangioma and more and more about cancer. On day 5, she was diagnosed with Orbital Rhabdomyosarcoma. It's a soft tissue cancer, and it was attached to the muscle that goes to her eye. Her cancer was a rapidly growing tumor. 10 days later she underwent surgery to have a port installed, and she started her first round of chemo that night. Her treatment plan is chemo once a week for 24 weeks in Birmingham and radiation Monday to Friday for 20 treatments starting December 13th at her 13 week mark. We've been driving a little over 3 hours from home to Birmingham and back every week. We are currently in week 18 and have 6 more weeks before her treatment plan is complete. Treatment has been going well, and she has been very responsive to it which is a blessing. It has affected our family as a whole because half of us are 3 hours away from home 5 days a week right now, and a couple days a week when she's not in radiation so we are separate a lot. It's tough but we do it. The hardest obstacle is watching her go through all of this and being away from home. What I can share with people who have never gone through this is that it's isolating. It's hard to talk about because most people never have to go through it so they don't really understand. It's hard watching your child go through surgery and really heavy anesthesia and just seeing her port get accessed. There are a lot of nights where her sleep schedule is messed up. There are a lot of moments when I do everything I can to console her and be strong for her and it doesn't feel like it's enough. I've had to find positives in the situation because I didn't see any. Her hair loss was a challenge. She had the most beautiful long thick hair and she's never lost a strand in her life and within 3 days she was bald. That was hard for me because because she loved when I would do her hair. She would sit still and let me do whatever style I wanted She always loved it, and then one day there was no hair left to style. She didn't feel beautiful when her hair fell out even though she was and is. So one positive that came out of that is we love her bald head and rubbing her noggin and giving her noggin kisses. Another positive thing is seeing how incredibly strong and brave and resilient she is. She'll get chemo and radiation and be ready to play after it like nothing happened. A positive is seeing the amount of support our family has and so much kindness from everyone during these times. Another positive is she will be cancer free soon.

We are delighted to hear that she is doing well and responding to treatment. From the pictures, it shows that this isn’t slowing her down. There currently is a GoFundMe for Monroe, which can be reached here. If you would like to send them something or words of encouragement, you can send them to us directly and we will forward them along.