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Terri

It was the nightmare of every parent. I was a young woman with a 5-year-old daughter full of energy and spunk. She loved riding her bike, going to the zoo, riding in my lap behind the steering wheel pretending to drive (around the corner in our neighborhood), playing on the beach, shopping, playing dress-up in my shoes and scarves, and getting her nails done. We went to the Houston Rodeo and then on to ride the rides at the carnival. All of a sudden, Terri fell to the ground. She couldn't stand up. She was crying.  I stood her up on her feet thinking she had tripped over something on the ground. her legs were wobbly and she fell again. My friend picked her up and he carried her to the car because she couldn't walk. She cried all the way to the 24-hour emergency clinic only minutes from the carnival. Once in the building, the staff separated us. They made implications that I had abused my daughter! They questioned me and her and finally, they decided that we were telling the truth. She had no bruises on her body, but her limbs were swollen. After taking tests that would not reveal the results until the next day, they sent us home. Terri moaned in her sleep all night and the next morning, I received the call that changed our lives forever. They urged me to get her to Texas Children's Hospital immediately. After running the most painful test a child should ever endure, the bone marrow test, they determined that Terri had ALL - acute lymphatic leukemia. I was devastated. The next two years of her life, the last two years of her life, were filled with emergency room visits, painful I.V. injections with burning fluids, chemotherapy sessions after chemotherapy sessions, and hospitalization after hospitalization. Terri, at the age of 7, died from Leukemia complications in my bed two years after her diagnosis. She had turned from a vibrant active little girl into a child riddled with constant pain and disappointment of not being able to live a normal childhood. My heart still aches for her because she didn't have the chance to live her life to its full potential.

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