It was Aug 2016 that Audrey became very sick. I was taking her back and forth from one urgent care and emergency room to another. Only to be told, "She has a virus. Just let her ride it out".

She would wake up in the night screaming in pain. Her whole little body ached all over and she wouldn't walk because her legs hurt; so we carried her everywhere.

She even stopped eating because she would throw up everything she ate. She slept all the time and was only awake about 4 hours a day. In September, Audrey’s primary care physician sent her to have blood work done and we received a call that same day. They said, Audrey's iron was at a four. I needed to get her to hospital. So we threw on some clothes and took her to Memorial Hospital in Bakersfield. The doctor there said she needed to have more tests and without knowing what was really going on they told us we needed to get her to Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera.

I remember waiting four hours for the ambulance to pick us up and I prayed the entire time.

Not long after we arrived we were told Audrey had leukemia; pre-b cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

My world immediately crashed around ​me. I thought they were wrong. The doctor was sweet, she kept her demeanor professional, she said as soon as we get her stable we'll do a bone marrow biopsy. Her blood was typed in less than 5 minutes. We were immediately escorted to a room and Audrey was given six bags of platelets and 6 bags of iron before she was stable.

The doctor explained that the type of leukemia she had and the suggested treatment plan had a 90% success rate. What I didn’t know is that this survival rate is largely due to the work of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

I was alone. I felt horrible. How could I allow something so horrific to happen to my baby girl?

Our stay at the hospital lasted only 10 days. We were sent home with instructions. Always wear a mask. Sanitize sanitize sanitize. Don't go around anyone with a sniffle, a cough or any other kind of germs. Essentially I was to put my baby in a bubble.

Audrey took chemo and steroids every day. Once a week we made the two hour trek to Valley Children's Hospital in Madera for more chemo. Audrey was a trooper. She reluctantly took her meds that we crushed and attempted to hide the bitter taste any way we could. She again complained of her legs hurting. She had pain from sores that formed in her mouth. Her hair rapidly began to thin and fall.

We went for a routine lumbar puncture the third week of October. This would tell us how well the chemo was working. We were to return on the next Friday for the results. My phone rang on Wednesday afternoon the caller ID said Valley Children's Oncology dept. It was Dr. Razzaqi.

He said, "Mom, I had to call you, we got the results in!".

I said, "What happened?". He said, "There's no evidence of disease!".

Confused, I said, "So you guys were wrong?".

He answered, "NO Mom, that means in just 28 days Audrey went into remission!!!!!"

I exclaimed, "PRAISE JESUS!!!".

He said, "Exactly!"

In May we finally started the maintenance phase of treatment. This will continue until December 5th 2018, the day after Audrey turns 5 years old!

- Nicole Gann