The Beginning, Part 1

   Well, now that I'm on my 3rd post, I suppose I should go back to the beginning and tell my own story.  Our daughter, Allison, was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 22 months old.  We were spending the summer with Jim's parents in Portsmouth, Virginia, waiting for our first military assignment.  Those first few weeks were a nightmare. . .I remember asking the doctor if she would survive, and she answered honestly that she didn't know.  Allison's age and very high white cell count were 2 major strikes against her.  After what seemed like endless transfusions, surgeries, and chemo, we celebrated the day of remission!  Allison came home to Grandma's house with us and we began a new "normal" of flushing tubes, changing the dressing over her catheter, administering medications, and going back to the hospital for chemo. 
   Then, during Labor Day weekend, we drove to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where Jim would begin his career as an active duty Army Chaplain.  The very next day, Allison and I were at Vanderbilt, meeting the new pediatric oncology team that would keep her alive.  She and I both quickly fell in love with those amazing, caring people, as well as with the other pediatric patients and their families.  Most of us had nothing in common except that our kids had cancer - it felt like joint membership in an exclusive club - we needed each other and we all spoke the same language.
   Our beautiful, extroverted little girl quickly made friends wherever she went . . .she had no problem speaking her mind to whoever would listen!  On many occasions, we heard her say, "I'm not a boy!  I'm a girl!" when unknowing strangers would look at her little bald head and comment about how cute our boy was!  And she loved chapel!  As the music played, she would hold her little New Testament so that she could sing from her 'hymnal' just like we sang from ours.
   In January, Allison got sick.  We thought she might have chicken pox, so she was admitted to Vanderbilt for IV treatment.  She continued to worsen, started having trouble breathing, and after two lung biopsies, was diagnosed with interstitial pneumonia.  Her doctor moved her to intensive care where she was sedated and intubated; he confessed that he believed she was dying and he didn't know how to stop the progression of the lung infection.  Finally, our doctor came to us one morning with good news - all of the cancer doctors in the hospital had met to discuss Allison, and one had shared that he had seen a similar response in a much older patient receiving very high doses of a particular chemo drug.  The treatment was not an antibiotic, it was a steroid; and the results were immediate!  Within 2 days the tube was removed, she was moved to a regular room, and a week later discharged!