When It All Started
The whole family, dad (Reggie), mom (Laura) and all four children, were out for a day shopping and then dinner. It all started just outside of the small plaza we had just gotten the two boys a haircut at. We were going from the salon to a department store to do some shopping. Dad, was carrying Tiffany football fashion, and chasing her two brothers, when she suddenly screamed out in pain. He instantly put her down and asked her what was wrong? Tiffany said her tummy hurt. At the time she was only four years old. Dad was puzzled as he couldn't see how, if he may have accidentally hurt her, that he could of hurt her so badly she cried. After everything was calm, and everything appeared to be fine, we went into the department store and purchased the items we went for. Next we went to dinner. While we were waiting to order our food, the children used the restrooms. After just a few minutes, my oldest, Belinda, came out alone and said mom you need to come into the bathroom. It made me wonder what was wrong, and I then noticed the odd look Belinda was expressing, and her urgency. I followed her to the restroom. Belinda began to explain that she saw a lot of blood in the commode and she had, had her girlfriend Desiree, guard the stall until she could get me to come and see it as well. I thought to myself this is odd, Tiffany couldn't be having this blood, she was only four? I also knew she wouldn't use a commode that looked dirty in anyway. She was enrolled in Headstart at the time, and we had taught her to get help if the stool was messy. I knew she did that. I looked into the commode and there was just a lot of blood there. I kept thinking this couldn't have come from Tiffany?? I asked her if it came from her, she said yes. I asked if it hurt, she said no. I asked if she was she she did this, pointing to the stool, she said yes. I decided to pat her with some bathroom tissue to see if I could see anything. It was pink... I thought, the water just splashed up on her, not ready to admit it was from her. I patted her with more tissue, it was also pink... I got very scared, more afraid than I had ever felt myself be. I had my third child 3 months premature, he weighed just 2lbs. 5 oz. I was scared then to, but I knew this was bad, very very bad. I told Belinda how smart she was to have her friend Desiree guard the stall and by coming to get me to see. We then went to the dinning area and I reported to my husband what I saw, and was told. As we sat there waiting for our food, my husband and myself began to let our imaginations run wild with fear. Neither one of us ate, or talked. We waited for the children to finish eating, trying not to alarm them. Then we discussed what to do, and we headed straight for the emergency room. Once we got there, I wanted to talk to "our" pediatrician, not a stranger. He wasn't in the hospital as we had hoped. We went directly to a lounge and called him at home. I still remembered number right off hand due to pre-mature son. He told me not to panic it was probably just cystitis. I knew later that was just something to tell me, as to not start a panic. I was obviously pretty excited already. Our doctor said to bring her straight in first thing in the morning. (It was Sunday) He also told us to make sure the blood was in fact coming from her as I kept telling him it may not have. We drove home. We weren't there 10 minutes when Tiffany used the bathroom and her father saw the blood come out.... I immediately called our pediatrician back. He told me to calm down and bring her in first thing in the morning and we would begin some test right away. I took her in the next morning first thing. We were sent right over to the hospital for an ultra sound. During the ultrasound, a man was brought in, I knew something was wrong, I'd had several ultrasounds and a second person never came. Iwas trying to read faces. I was then asked to step out into the hall for a moment. I tensed, I knew this would be it, the moment I didn't want to happen. I went out into the hall, and the man, took me to the side and said, your daughter has kidney's that are shaped like kidney's I've never seen before. There are huge tissue masses, or tumors. I believe your daughter may have cancer....in both of her kidney's. I've never felt my life end....but I thought I did right then at that very moment. What I heard that man say, was my daughter was going to be taken away from me. I went back into the waiting room where a friend waited, and I gathered my things, in shock, I never said a word. We went back to the doctors office, and my pediatrician also, with tears in his eyes told me my daughter had cancer. I was given time in the room, then I went out to the front desk for arrangements. I couldn't think, I just filled with fear and emotion. The receptionist started to cry, my friend also knew now. It started to become more and more real with every tear I started to see shed. My heart ached, I just kept looking at my daughter and thinking, there's been a mistake, look at her, she's playing, she's healthy, she complains of a stomach ache once in awhile after eating, nothing more. Just as I began to crumble right there, my husband walked in. He knew I was taking a great deal of time and had began to really worry and had grown impatient and drove up from work. Just as he entered I completely fell apart. My brother Tiffany's Uncle, had also came up to doctor's office. We were sent immediately to U of M Motts Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. Tiffany was examined and ultra sounds and CAT scans were done. It was also suspected by these urology specialist that Tiffany indeed had bilateral Wilms Tumors, meaning both kidney's had tumors. She was sent upstairs to the seventh floor cancer ward. I can't tell you much about that as I remember very little about that to this day. I remember realizing we were on a floor that almost all the patients were bald and that alone scared me to realize we need to be "here". I remember family showing up, the toy room and who our first roommates where. I recall I made no phone calls as I couldn't get cancer out of my mouth, let alone to tell everyone about it. Family, God bless them helped me out here. I remember not wanting to go to sleep that first night in fear I would wake up still there and it would all be real! The next morning, Tiffany had a biopsy on both kidney's. It was Wilm's. Both kidney's, lymph noids, and one spot on the outside of kidney, were all infected with tumors. She was diagnosed with bilateral lateral Wilms, with an anaplastic histology, at a stage 5. Tiffany couldn't have hers tumors removed right away as it affected both kidney's, and they were 11.9cm, and 10.1cm in size. They were also by all the functioning tubes and vessels and such, that allowed the kidneys to work. They needed to shrink tumors as small as possible for any hopes of saving the kidney's. It was 3 months later before surgery was scheduled to remove tumors. The chemotherapy did not shrink the tumors any substantial amount. We were told it was to be expected Tiffany would loose all of both Kidney's. By the grace of God, one very skilled Dr. Bloom, and a 10 1/2 hour surgery, Tiffany has half a Kidney (double particle nephrectomy's) remaining on each side. She went through a one year protocol with chemo. treatments, staying in the hospital one week out of every month. She also got Monday vincristine at the Cancer clinic at U of M in Ann Arbor. She only received 6 radiation treatments at I think it was 10 so those weren't to bad, (radiation). Tiffany had a total of 3 major surgery's in just 5 months. One was for a bowel obstruction caused by scar tissue from a previous surgery. That was an awful thing to go through for her, and us. She couldn't get anything through so it ended up coming up the other way, I always believed this to be a myth until it happened to my child. This surgery, even Tiffany was ready for. She was in pure agony. She has also had several procedures. She has a blockage from her kidney to her bladder, also from scar tissue, so she has a nephrostomy bag draining one kidney. She needs this tube changed regularly as an outpatient now, but is put under for it.