Make A Child Smile

Savanna's Story
written by mom April

Savanna was born on July 28th, 2004. Weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 9oz and measuring 21 inches long. This was the happiest day of our life. After trying for 2 very long years and hearing doctors say that we were not able to have children unless we used in-vitro... Savanna's birth was truly a miracle.

She was a very quite loving baby. Never fussed unless she was hungry. My husband and I would always take her to her doctor's appointments and each time the doctor always told us that she was perfect. Which we knew already (he he). She was growing fine and basically a healthy baby.

On February 5th, 2006 our lives were forever changed. My husband called me at work telling me that Savanna was having difficulty breathing. He decided to take her to the ER. I quickly left work and met them there. They quickly rushed us to the back and the nurse listened to her lungs and said that she needed to have a chest x-ray done. Once the results came back, the doctor came in and told us that her right lung had collapsed. We were in shock! They all kept asking us all kinds of questions to try to figure out why this had happened. Nothing at all made any sense as to why her lung collapsed. They told us they would have to put a chest tube in right away and then transfer her to Arkansas Children's.

Once we were settled in at ACH all the doctor's began to come in and ask questions and order all kinds of tests to see what was wrong. A CAT scan was ordered and once the results came back they let us know right away that she had cysts on her right lung and one on her left. They did not know why they were there but they were going to do their best to give us some answers.

Well after a week in the hospital they were all stumped. They said that Savanna was stable enough to go home and that if there were any problems, to bring her back right away. Before we left one of the doctors came in and said that they thought Savanna had some sort of an underlying health condition but they just didn't know what it was. So with this information we went home. I remember saying to my husband in the car on the way home "What if it is cancer?" He told me not to think like that. She would be just fine.

A week went by with no problems but the following Sunday it happened again. Only this time, I was with her. Her breathing was very shallow, I immediately called 911 and they took us to ACH. Once there, the doctors said they would have to operate the next day to remove the cysts on her right lung. After surgery, the doctor came in and told us that he thought she had cystic lung disease, nothing at all to worry about. They sent a sample to be tested and the results would be back in a couple of days and by then we should all be able to go home.

Well, two days after the surgery, he came in and pulled up a chair. Right away I knew something was not right. He looked at us and said "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but the biopsy came back and it's malignant. She has what is called Pleuropulmonary Blastoma, a very rare type of childhood lung cancer." Everyone around me began to cry but I just sat there looking at my baby with just one single tear running down my face. It was as if everything was in slow motion and I couldn't make sense of anything. I knew in my heart when this all first started, that something was seriously wrong with my little girl. I think it was mother's intuition!

The oncologist came in and talked with us and said that this was only the 3rd case ACH had ever seen. He told us that she would have to have chemotherapy, Chest and bone CT's, and Brain MRI's every 3 months for the next 5 years to make sure the cancer was under control.

Savanna started chemo on March 1st, 2006. Since then, she has been in and out of the hospital frequently. Savanna had surgery on August 4th to remove 1/3 of her upper and middle lobes of her right lung and they also removed a small tumor that was attached to the sack around her heart. She is recovering very well and we just learned that her Cancer is in Remission, but she will have to finish her chemo treatments which started again on August 22nd.

Savanna is a very strong and loving little girl. She is, and will always be, my MIRACLE BABY!