Meet Hannah, the Awesome girl.

I have a wonderful story that I want to share with my readers (if I happen to have any readers). 

I won't say much as I shall allow her mom's story to do the talking.

Hannah Duckworth is a 14 year old girl battling AML (Acute Myeloyde Leukemia). It is a cancer that starts in your bone marrow. AML is a commonly found in adults 40 and over, rarely is it found in children. Hannah was diagnosed less than a month before her 14th birthday. People with this type of cancer have abnormal cells in their bone marrow. The cells grow very quickly, and replace healthy blood cells. The bone marrow, which help the body fight infection eventually stop working. Most of the time doctors can not tell you what causes AML but, in Hannah's case they were able to determine that she has AML with inversion 16, which tells them that one of her chromosomes flipped and started swapping with others. When she arrived at St. Jude's she had less than 8% healthy bone marrow left. The prognosis is usually good. In most cases remission occurs after being cancer free for 5 years. Hannah will have her bone marrow done every 4 months to ensure it has not come back. On Tuesday December 18th, 2012 she will have her bone marrow that will hopefully begin the 5 year process. With treatment, younger patients with AML tend to do better than those who develop it at an older age. Experts say that this is due to the fact that younger people are able to tolerate strong chemotherapy medicines better. If the cancer does not come back (relapse) with in the 5 years you are said to be cured. Hannah was officially diagnosed June 14, 2012 right before her 14th birthday. The way we found out about Hannah's cancer was not a usual way. She did not present with typical signs, she only had sores in her mouth and after getting tested for mono we found she was neutropenic. She saw a pediatric oncologist for a couple of months. Who took samples of Hannah's blood two times a week and when she realized nothing was changing, she did a bone marrow. By the end of that day she called and said we need to be packed up and ready to go to St. Jude's as soon as they call. That's a phone call you never want to take. I didn't even have the heart to tell my daughter, I had to have the doctor tell her. It is like getting your heart ripped out and thrown on the ground. As if that's not enough she said, we would be gone for 6-8 months. Our world stopped moving, all of a sudden your in survival mode. You hear the words you never want to hear especially pertaining to your child. Our lives as we knew it would never be the same. We didn't even have time to say bye to anyone. By the end of the next day we were at St. Jude's. That is a trip that will never be forgotten. She started treatment on June 14, 2012. At this time Hannah had sores in her mouth leading down to her stomach. The doctors and nurses were trying to make her comfortable with narcotics,of which we soon found out she was very sensitive to. By the end of the night Hannah would be fighting for her life. After the first time she stopped breathing they gave her a medicine to reverse the effect of the narcotics. That didn't work and she stopped breathing again. As they were bagging her right in front of us I was able to reach down and hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be alright (even though I didn't know at that time) I gave her a kiss and told her to close her eye and it will all be over just like a bad dream. It was the hardest thing to walk out of that room. We were met in the hallway by the nurses and aids who surrounded us with prayer and support. At one point her blood pressure was 40/20 and her oxygen was 59%. There is an unexplainable emptiness you feel. After they got her stable, they were able to tell us that she responded to the chemo so well that it popped open all her leukemia cells and that made her go septic, her whole body started shutting down. This in fact was the worst day of our lives.They were controlling her blood pressure with medicine and her breathing by a machine. With their fast acting they saved our daughters life, for that we are forever thankful. The next morning to our surprise she was communicating with pen and paper. She made sure to tell us, not to cry and that she was going to be ok. In three days and many test later Hannah accidentally pulled the breathing tube out while she was sleeping. Within hours she was on room air and out of ICU. She was in the hospital for a total of two weeks. Her second treatment presented with more problems, they do procedures called Interthegal Therapy (IT Therapy) which is where they put chemo in your spinal fluids so it can reach your brain because the other chemo does not reach it. It caused Hannah's brain to swell, she lost the ability to follow direction or even talk within moments. By the time we got to the hospital she was hardly able to walk. But as fast as it came on it went away, doctors say that never happens, she has no residual effects. Yet another blessing. She has receive numerous blood products, has dealt with nausea and vomiting, her weight has gone from 99 pounds all the way down to 76 pounds, she lost her hair, has missed out on freshman orientation and homecoming dances, time with friends and her dog died about a month in to this journey. In the process of her recovering from her final chemo which was on October 21, 2012 she ended up with a line infection. Two weeks later she was still in the hospital with a fever so they did a scan, which was clear. The doctor really felt like her fever curve was telling him she had a fungal infection but, if you have no white cells it won't show so, he repeated the scan a week later. That in fact showed a 5cm spot in her lung. This was the week of Thanksgiving of which we were supposed to be home by this time. We had a meeting that night and all of us including Hannah decided it needed to come out. The next day she had surgery, by the time they got to the fungi it had spread even more. They ended up taking 2/3 of her lung on the right side. Even when they got it out it was growing right before their eyes under the microscope.There are many things cancer can take away but, we will take away so much more. Strength we never knew we had, faith, blessings from people we don't even know, new friends and we have the life of our beautiful daughter. Through out all of this Hannah has maintained her dignity and strength with a mature and faithful attitude. Never asking why or being angry, always being positive and a pleasure to be around. She is our hero and always will be. Being an artist Hannah is inspired by most everything. She is able to look at anything a draw it with great detail. Ever since she was a baby, Hannah has loved art and animals. Once I found her in my bathroom putting on her kitty face with my make-up. She has many other interest like realistic artwork, rock concerts, studded belts, and cool hair styles. Some of the animals she like are unicorns, horses, cats, dogs, fox, and especially wolves. Photography has always been a favorite of hers. Hannah does a lot of research when she is interested in something. One time we went to Best Buy, while looking at cameras she took a picture worthy of framing. She has an eye for beauty, what ever that may be. Some of her favorite artist include Kat Von Dee, Henri Russeo, and Van Gogh. One day she would like to meet Kat Von Dee. Like any teen she likes to shop and hang out at the mall. Her favorite store is Hot Topic. Skinny jeans and combat boots fit her unique style perfectly. Music has really helped Hannah, some of her favorite bands are Misfits, Deadmaui, The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie, she also enjoys Dub Step. Before she lost her hair she was known for her radical hair colors and always had a style all her own that she would cut herself. She uses her imagine freely and skillfully. Hannah loves to go antique shopping and collects skeleton keys. She feels they are all unique just like people. Her laid back personality and unique individual style makes her a conversation starter where ever she goes.Everyone loves her incredible sense of humor. She is such a blessing and so thoughtful that she often puts others before herself. I really hope this helps you to understand her and the journey she went on. If it can help one person then we have done our job. We feel like we have had blessing after blessing and couldn't do it with out our faith. Thank you for taking the time to read her story.