Childhood Cancer Awareness Month Hero
neveah alvarez
Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
Survivor
Nevaeh was only one years old when diagnosed. She loved playing outside with big sister, Penelope, loved being in mommy’s arms and was just beginning to walk when she suddenly got ill.
Nevaeh got really sick around mid January 2022. I took her in to the ER on January 26th, because Nevaeh was having consistent high fevers and was not able to eat or drink without vomiting. I was told she had pneumonia and COVID and further instructed to bring her back if she worsened after discharge. The next morning Nevaeh was extremely lethargic and had a high fever of 104. She began throwing up and I rushed her back to the ER.
She got admitted into the pediatrics unit for what was just suppose to be an overnight stay to monitor her, little did I know the following morning her primary doctor would walk in to tell me “Nevaeh has blast cells in her blood, you will meet with our oncologist specialist by this evening.” The oncologist came in that evening and said “there’s a possibility it can be cancer, we will monitor her over the next few days. I’ll be back Monday morning. Saturday and Sunday her white blood count was increasing, blasts cells were fluctuating. Monday morning the oncologist came in and said he would discharge Nevaeh, enjoy being home for the day and to be in his office the next day. We were warned to come prepared for a possible admission of up to 30 days.
Wednesday morning we arrived at the hospital, we meet with the oncologist and gather together in a circle and we hear the words “your daughter has leukemia. Leukemia is cancer. Your daughter has cancer. The type of leukemia your daughter has is rare and very aggressive, if she doesn’t begin treatment right away, she’s not going to make it.”
Cancer has impacted our life in several ways, emotionally, mentally, physically and financially. Her cancer diagnosis affected made her lose the ability to walk, not once, but twice. Now that she is no longer in active treatment, Nevaeh suffers from PTSD, and has mild hearing loss, astigmatisms in both eyes, moderate asthma, and requires physical therapy. We all live in fear that our life can fall apart again & we’ll be forced to be separated. Nevaeh has endured so much in her 2 years of life. She has lived with a cancer diagnosis more than she has had a healthy life.
Now that Nevaeh has finished treatment she looks forward to the time she’s at home. Nevaeh spent 6 months in the hospital and was isolated for over a year. Nevaeh is constantly going to appointments sometimes up to 6x a week but home is her place of comfort and we are so happy to be back home as a family. She is now one year cancer free as of August 15.
-Raquel Visoso, mother
