I will start on how we realized something was wrong....
October 1st 2011..night time, Mike was holding Chloe when he noticed her pupils were different. Her right pupil was big and her left very tiny. We turned on and off the lights to see if they would change but only her right pupil would. We both knew something wasn't right so we took her to the urgent care, from there they told us to go straight to Primary Children's Medical, the urgent care doc told us she had meningitis. WHAT?! So we rushed her up to PCMC emergency room. After being admitted the doc said she did NOT have meningitis, she had zero symptoms of it. OK?! So now we were really confused. We had a CT scan done on her head to see if she bumped her head, but it came back normal. The doc asked us if she had ever had any other eye problems, and in fact she did. Through out the summer I had noticed her left eye droop at times, her pediatrician told me it was allergies. The ER doc said he thought the two symptoms were related. He called it "Horners Syndrome"..he was fairly certain, but referred us to see a neuro- opthomologist at the Moran Center. We went home that night feeling OK with his diagnosis because he said it was most likely something she was born with, and "Horner Syndrome" does not pose any health risks. A few days later we took her to the Moran Eye Center where we did a cocaine eye drop test( yes they put liquid cocaine in my 11 month's eye) and her left pupil did not dilate, her right one was HUGE, freaky huge. We also was pointed out that day that Chloe doesn't sweat on her left side, a perfect line down her head of sweat, and other side dry, another trait of Horner Syndrome...weird. The confirmed she indeed had Horners. They had determined she was not born with it, based off lots of pictures we brought in of her since birth. They believe she aquired it in May or June. So they referred us to PCMC for an MRI to see if there was nerve damage, or a tumor or still possibly nothing. They explained to us that when you suddenly acquire Horner syndrome it usually means there is an underlying problem in the body..Horners is kinda a "side affect" and not the actual problem. So a few days later we go in for the MRI,still fairly confident its nothing serious.... Boy were we wrong. The MRI detected a tumor in her chest on the left side (causing her Horner symptoms because the tumor is pressed on nerves in her neck). From that appt. through the rest of October our days were filled with every scan and test imaginable. We met with an oncologist at PCMC who told us she believed Chloe has Neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that affects the nerves. On October 18th, we went in for her biopsy and bone marrow aspiration,they then confirmed the Neuroblastoma and put a broviac line( an iv placed surgically to give her meds and draw labs). Further tests have confirmed that she is stage 4 because it has spread to parts of her bones. Her doctors have told us that even though it is stage 4, they class her in intermediate risk group due to her being under 1 year old at diagnosis and she doesn't carry a certain gene found in this cancer. They tell us this is VERY good factors and she has a great chance of recovery. Chloe started her first round of chemo on November 2, the day after her first birthday.Not our ideal way of celebrating but if it means more birthdays for her than that's what we have to do. Chloe has handled everything from her scans, surgery and chemo like a champ. She is simply AMAZING. I mean if you've seen her in person, she is the most dainty little girl, but she has proven herself to be a fighter.We have about 6 months of chemo and then they will rescan her to see if they can remove her tumor( they need to shrink it because it is so close to her spine). We have a tough road ahead, but she is worth the fight. Thanks so much for the support:)
