BiographyScarlett was born a happy healthy girl in November 2018. In July 2022, when she was around 3.5 years old, I started noticing abnormal bruising and a change in her behaviour and attitude. She also started to walk with a strange gait, complaining of pain in her hips and legs. Over the next 3 months we visited 4 different doctors for answers only to be continuously told nothing was wrong and she was just a normal kid who bruised, had growing pains and had pulled her hamstring. My mum instinct knew something was not right, so when her eye suddenly swelled shut overnight from an infection I took her straight to the children’s hospital in Brisbane. The doctor in the emergency room finally listened to me, and was the first doctor to order a simple blood test. This blood test told us what we feared most: Scarlett had leukaemia at just 3 years old.
The first month of her treatment was horrific. My little girl endured so many surgeries and needles when she had never been exposed to any of that before. She adapted so quickly and began asking questions about her treatment and has become truly invested in the whys and whats of everything that happens. Since her diagnosis 15 months ago, she has gone through 17 lumbar punctures under anesthetic (which involves injecting chemotherapy medication directly into her spine), countless blood tests, 32 IV infusions of chemotherapy and 5 pulses of steroids. I have had to learn how to administer subcutaneous injections, and give oral chemotherapy at home as part of her treatment.
While it has been the hardest time of our lives, her resilience has strengthened our family in a way that cannot be described. Scarlett, and all kids going through the same and similar situations, has given me the outlook on life that things truly can always be worse and we are grateful for every moment we have.
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