The Beginning

As many might understand, we have created this blog to pass along information about our sweetest niece in the world. It can get tough for Tami and Dawayne to take so many calls and continue to send mass texts out updating everyone on Haley. Much of this will be Haley's story scribed by Darianne (her cousin and best friend), as Dar has been with Haley through this entire ordeal.

  

Haley McKenzie Medford was born September 6, 1994.  She was born of Tamara Pace King and Shawn David Medford.  She has three sisters, Makayla (10) Aysia (5) and Jerzi (9 months) and one brother, Tyler (9) born of Tamara King and Dawayne King and one brother, Eric Medford born of Shawn Medford and Candice Libby.  Her mom has 7 siblings, her dad has 9 siblings and her dad Dawayne has one brother so you can only image how many relatives she has.

Brief Overview of Haley in Mom's perspective

I have always felt as if Haley is truly an angel, gift and a blessing to me.  She is so helpful around the house, loves to cook and bake and musically gifted, she has a beautiful voice and plays both the guitar and piano.  I simply could not ask for a better daughter.  At age 16, unbelievably so, she has caused me not one ounce of grief as teenagers usually do.  She is an excellent student, maintains honor roll status, she working on her associates degree in high school and is a candidate for the Century Scholarship.  I never have to ask Haley to help out.  As soon as she sees me cleaning, she immediately starts pitching in.  She starts on one end of the house and I start on the other.  I call her the speed folder because she can fold about 6 batches of laundry in under 20 minutes.  I don't know how she does it.  If something rips or breaks, she is my little fix-it girl whether she pulls out the sewing needle and thread or the super glue, she likes to fix things. A very interesting thing about Haley is she loves to solve puzzles, brain teasers and riddles.  She has mastered the Rubix Cube, an accomplishment I know.  She is logical and extremely good in math.  I think she will make an excellent psychiatrist.  She wants to be a psychiatrist for the military to be specific. She also loves movies and music.  We both do.  Our favorite game to play is "guess the movie quote".   What an excellent memory she has.  She can ramble of in great detail specific lines of hundreds and hundreds of movies and she will always be the one to guess the movie from the famous quote.  She is funny, I will be singing a song, and she will say oh it actually says things on that line.  One simple little word, but sure enough I sang the wrong lyrics.  One of our favorite things to do lately is go to my son's baseball games.  We both loves sports, she played on the high school volleyball team and was one of the best servers on the team.  I would have to say that Haley is my absolute best friend.  I would rather hang out with her than any other person on this earth and that is a fact.  We sing and play the guitar together, watch movies, play volleyball, grocery shop and bake together and I would have her live with me forever if I could.  I love her more than words could ever express.

Beginning Signs

  About a year ago, Haley noticed a little kernel (bump) right behind her ear up into her hair line.  We talked to Grandma LuAnn about it because it caused us some concern.  We took her to the family clinic and it was

in the waiting room

suspected that it was a "kernel" type mass and we were instructed to watch it to see if it changed in size or if it became painful.  With no other symptoms and no change in the "bump" we concluded that it was in fact a "kernel".  Three weeks ago, Haley noticed some painless lumps in her neck and one other lump in her head.  We immediately took her back to the family clinic.  The nurse practitioner thought maybe they were fatty tissue buildups but referred us to an ENT specialist for a biopsy so we would know for sure.  Within two or three days we saw Dr. Gull (ENT Specialist), who ordered a cat scan and tissue biopsy at St. Marks.  He prescribed an antibiotic in the meantime just in case she had some type of infection.  On June 10, 2011, we took Haley in for this procedure and the cat scan showed several lymph nodes swollen. The radiologist at St. Marks determined that a tissue biopsy would come back inconclusive and he called Dr. Gull who scheduled Haley for an incisional biopsy (where they surgically removed a full lymph node in her neck) for the following Tuesday.  This was a same day surgery performed by Dr. Gull on June 21, 2011, who came highly recommended.  His nurse stated he had a steady hand and that if it were her daughter, she would not want anyone else performing this surgery. 

getting ready for surgery

This surgery went very well and Haley received her first "battle scar" as she would put it.  On Friday, June 24th we had the results of her biopsy back which confirmed she had some type lymphoma and she was referred to Dr. Sato, an oncologist at Primary Children's Hospital.  We scheduled an appointment with Dr. Sato on June 30, 2011.  Mom, Grandma LuAnn, Darianne and Jessica all accompanied Haley to this appointment.  At that appointment she had blood work drawn and was scheduled for surgery to have her bone marrow tested.  If under 25% of the cancer cells were in her bone marrow, it would be considered Lymphoma over 25% it would be considered Leukemia.  Within an hour of her blood testing (blood smear),

first "battle scar

Dr. Sato came to me (mom) in the waiting room, and indicated that her blood smear results were leaning towards Leukemia rather than Lymphoma and to prepare admission to Primary Children's first in the Morning, July 1, 2011.

A lot of Haley's signs suggested that she had Hodgkins Lymphoma and to be honest, that is what we were hoping for (97% curable).  When Dr. Sato said the word "Leukemia (70% curable)" I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me and when she started to describe the surgical procedures she would undergo on July 1, 2011, I almost fainted.

July 1, 2011
Before admission to Primary Children's, we took Haley to see the new Transformers in theaters (girls night out with Darianne and Jessica).  We packed our bags the morning of July 1, 2011 and prepared for admission into Primary Childrens.  First day at Primary's was rough to say the least.  Haley had four surgeries in succession so she would only have to go under anesthesia once.  All of these surgeries were basically to determine the extent of the cancer in her body and to surgerically install her "Port".  Which is technically an IV that is inserted right over her rib cage where they can begin giving her treatments.  It was shortly after these surgeries that we learned the exact type of cancer that Haley has, which is Acute Precursor B Lymphoblastic Leukemia, at Haley's age, there is about a 30% chance of relapse, which means later in life it could come back.



- The following day by day has been written out by Darianne about Haley -

Leukemia Day 1- July 1st: Haley has had many friends and family come and visit her. Shawn (dad) came and saw her in the hospital. We were all really happy to see him and see that he is doing so well. He was upset about the diagnosis, but he was truly happy to see her.  Her first night in the hospital, Tami and Jessica (Friend) had to leave for the night so Darianne stayed with her in the hospital. Haley was in serious pain. Her head was hurting and she was nauseous, but she slept it off. She had an amazing nurse who took care of her during the night. Haley didn’t start Chemo that night even though we thought she would, she wasn’t ready yet. She slept most of the night, Darianne was by her side.

Leukemia Day 2: July 2^nd, at 10:00 a.m. Haley woke up and they gave her first Chemo treatment. She didn’t feel sick, only uncomfortable. Then Tami and Dad Dawayne came with Jessica. Roger King (Grandpa), Deb Greiner (Friend) and Scotty King (Uncle) all came and spoiled her with gifts and love. They are all great support and we appreciate all who come and see her. Grandma Glenda sent her a bouquet of balloons and a Teddy Bear, (Haley loves it all). The nurse came and talked to all of us about the side effects of her treatments. She told us to keep Haley as clean as possible. Don’t let sick people around her, don’t go out to crowded places and always be aware if she starts feeling even slightly sick. A small fever could be fatal, so we must be careful. Usually it’s not always the cancer that kills; it’s the sicknesses they get while treating the cancer. Her immune system is going to be very low, so anything could hurt her. She is going to be like a new born baby; bald, tender, and will need a lot of taking care of. Tami and Dawayne will have to keep track of the people that are going to school with her siblings Tyler and Makayla. So I guess all in all KEEP YOUR KIDS CLEAN AND AWAY FROM HALEY! She is a very vulnerable soul.