Prayers For Baby Brooklyn King

Eric and Allyssia were blessed on June 11, 2013 with the birth of their first child Brooklyn LaMay King! Such a beautiful little girl, Eric (23) and Allyssia (20) were so very excited to welcome this little bundle into their hearts and lives, and so began their hopes and dreams with their little family. Brooklyn had been taken into the doctors so many times with the concerns of her being sick, not eating much, reflux, extreme crying, not gaining weight, ect. Eric and Allyssia were told time and again that everything was fine, they were "young first time parents", and were over reacting. They continued to take her to the doctors, and continued to get the same responses. Eric and Allyssia were concerned, but were also excited because they both had started new jobs, and had saved enough money to get their own apartment after living with family and friends for months! And now they would get to spend Brooklyns first Christmas in their own place, what a beautiful holiday it would be for this happy little family of 3!!

On December 17th, at just 6 months old, their very world was rocked with every parents worst fears, and their parents intuition that something was just not right with their baby girl proved just how in tune young first time parents can be with their baby. Brooklyn had an ultrasound on her little tummy, and a tumor was found on Brooklyns little liver. Eric and Allyssia had to take Brooklyn immediately from the doctors office in Fort Wayne, Indiana to Riley Childrens Hospital in Carmel Indiana. Their excitement for the holidays was exchanged for fear of Brooklyns health and future, and seemingly endless testing to try to find out what was wrong with their beautiful baby girl. When Eric and Allyssia were shown the results from the CT scan and MRI, they finally got to see for themselves what was making little Brooklyn so sick and unhappy. The tumor on Brooklyns little liver was so large, that it filled most of her abdominal cavity, and as it filled her, it pushed all her little organs out of place, most were shifted completely to the left, while her liver that the tumor started growing on was pushed up into her lungs. They felt like their world shattered.

On December 23, Brooklyn had her first surgery where a "port" was placed for Chemotherapy, and a biopsy was done. With the port in place, and the biopsy done, she was allowed to go home to be with her parents to spend Christmas at home. Eric and Allyssia were scrambling Christmas Eve to return gifts they had bought for Brooklyn to be able to fill the prescriptions they needed for their baby, and to put gas into their truck, as they had already had to make the 70 mile trip from Fort Wayne to Carmel several times to retrieve needed items from home, and to work the new jobs they had both just got. This was not the way they had imagined spending their first Christmas as a family. 

Then the day after Christmas, they had to drive back to Rileys in Carmel, as Brooklyn was scheduled to begin her first round of Chemotherapy. However, the bad news just continued, as the port that was placed 3 days before had shifted, so Brooklyn had to undergo surgery to place the port back where it needed to be for the Chemo. While Brooklyn was in recovery from that surgery, the doctors spoke to the family about the results of the biopsy. Brooklyns tumor was called Hepatoblastoma, which is pediatric liver cancer, and was found to be Stage III. While this is a common childhood cancer, Brooklyns tumor was dense, which is not common. They were told Brooklyns cancer was "very aggressive", and needed to be treated with a strong series of Chemotherapy, to be aggressive in treating Brooklyns cancer. During this same discussion with the doctors, they were also informed that the further testing that had been done revealed that cancer was not to be the only fight for this little family. Brooklyns also has a heart defect, where her aorta had developed/grown across her esophagus and putting preassure on it to where it is affecting her ability to to swallow and keep down her formula. The doctors stated at that time that they suspect that she has DiGeorge Syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that is caused by a defect in Chromosome 22, and they will need to add a specialists in Genetics to the panel of doctors to help with Brooklyns growing medical issues.

On December 27th, Brooklyn got to begin her first Chemo treatment in a session where she had to lay flat on her back for 6 hours while the chemo medication is pumped into her via the port. Can you imagine not being able to hold your baby while she is going through this? While Eric and Allyssia understood that Brooklyn needed this, it drained them mentally and emotionally to have to watch their baby girl go through this. They had to spend another night in the hospital, as after this type of chemo, Brooklyn had to be under observation for 24 hours beginning when the chemo finished. But she did get to go back home to Fort Wayne the next night, along with her schedule for her chemotherapy appointments for the next month. 

Throughout January Eric and Allyssia made the costly trips back and forth to Rileys in Carmel for each chemo appointment for both types of chemo Brooklyn was getting to treat her cancer. They had to watch Brooklyn get so sick from chemo, lose almost all her hair and eyebrows (she is bald and beautiful now!!), but Brooklyn was such a little fighter, such a strong baby, she never stopped smiling. They had to miss so much work so they could take her and to be there with her while she was undergoing each chemo appointment. Luckily, Brooklyns mother Allyssia had a job with a great company who told her she could have anytime off that she needed, such a blessing that they were so understanding that mommy had to be there with her baby! Erics job was also understanding in the beginning, however all the time he needed off for the chemo appointments took its toll, and Eric was let go from his job. The loss of his income just added yet more stress and worry to this little family. There was an appointment set at beginning of February to do more scans/testing to see the progress that was made during the chemotherapy, in the hope that the tumor would shrink enough to have surgery around the 14th. So many prayers were said daily by so many people, that we were sure we would get good news for a change, and Brooklyn had put on a pound, so was now 14 pounds at 8 months old!!!

However, all the excitement for the upcoming surgery was dashed when the results came back from the scans. The darn tumor was not budging as we had all prayed for. Brooklyn was then set up to do 2 more rounds of both chemo treatments during Feb and March, but they do finally transfer the Chemotherapy to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, so that will help ease a little bit of the financial burden they are under, so that is something we can rejoyce in! The scans would then be repeated again at the beginning of April. Brooklyn fought on, and her parents did too. Their lives were lived between chemo appointments, doctor appointments, and showing this beautiful brave little girl as much love as they could. The 3 fought on, and we all prayed, loved, supported, surrounded, and journeyed on with them, doing anything we could to keep them all strong. Prayer chains. A simple word or two of encouragement. A shoulder to lean on. Someone to shed our tears with. It has all held everyone together. Step by step, we journey on. One day at a time.

So April began, and the scans were done, and the wait for news began anew. So we waited... and waited..... and waited some more. Then April 9th the call came that we had all been waiting for!! The doctor says Brooklyns tumor shows "significant" shrinkage, and it is time to set the surgery to remove the tumor!! So on Thursday April 17th, Eric and Allyssia will be taking baby Brooklyn back to Riley Childrens Hospital to be admitted for pre-op blood work and testing, and her surgery is being scheduled for Friday April 18. Brooklyn will have to recover in the hospital 3-5 days depending on how well see does, and while she is recovering, the Genetic Specialist will meet with Eric and Allyssia and begin the testing needed to figure out why she has extra chromosomes, and what is causing the heart defect, if it is in fact DiGeorge Syndrome, and setting up a treatment plan to start on. When Brooklyn is released, she will still have to go through more chemo, and probably more surgeries to put her abdominal cavity and organs back as it should be. The future may be unknown, but we now see the hope for the future, the hope of getting Brooklyn healthy. We see prayers being answered, and most of all, we are still all loving Brooklyn and her parents, cheering them on, praying for miracles, being supportive, and following them on Brooklyns Journey.

So while they journey on, and we go with them, we found this site and thought it would be a fun way to show our support for Brooklyn, Eric, and Allyssia!! Not only will they benefit financially from each shirt purchased, but each shirt purchased gives us each an opportunity to share Brooklyns journey with those who have yet to be blessed by knowing about our little star who is loved by so many, and has become a 10 month old 14 pound Hero to those who are blessed to be accompanying them on this Journey over the past 3 months!! Brooklyn is my Hero!

http://www.facebook.com/JoinTheFightForBrooklyn