I wrote these on Facebook in 2018 as part of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I am currently sharing them there again in honor of September but also just wanted to put them here to be able to easily return to them.
In honor of childhood cancer awareness month I’m going to share Ariella’s story again in parts for those new to the page and to hopefully raise more awareness. We weren’t even aware of all the awareness initiatives, advocates and groups until nearing the end of treatment.
So here’s her story, part 1. Ariella had been complaining of leg pain in fall 2016. She’s a dancer so we didn’t think much of it. When she rested it, it got better. At one point we did have it x-rayed which showed a contusion, but we were just told to have her rest it and if it didn’t improve, see an orthopedic surgeon. It did improve, for a while. By January 2017 it was hurting much more, red and swollen. We took her to the orthopedist who x-rayed and then immediately sent us for an MRI. Not 20 minutes after leaving the MRI place we get a call from the doctor referring us to an orthopedic oncologist. The bottom dropped out. We were completely floored. Cancer was not even remotely on our radar. How could this be? It was a dance injury! This was the beginning of our life changing as we knew it. The next couple of days consisted of scans, tests and biopsies. The doctor suspected Ewing’s Sarcoma and after a couple of weeks waiting for results it was confirmed on February 25, 2017.