Patient stories

Amelia the brave!

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May 25th 2021 will forever be the day that our world changed! We rushed our 3 year old daughter Amelia to the royal children’s hospital after her nose started bleeding at 9am and just wouldn’t stop. Once we arrived at the hospital, Amelia had lost so much blood she fainted and luckily my husband was there to catch her.

She was rushed in to emergency and the first results we received about an hour later were that her blood levels were at 32 (should be around 110 for her age)…so instantly we were told she would need a blood transfusion asap which happened quite quickly after! Two hours later around 3pm our world stood still… a doctor sat beside me and began to explain Amelia’s blood levels and as soon as I heard the word blasts I just knew, I looked at her and all I heard was the word leukaemia… everything after that was a blur and still is.. I think I have chosen to block it out for now as I still haven’t come to terms with all of this!

Before this day Amelia went down hill over about a 2 month period… during the whole month of April she was constantly sick with the flu/virus…she would be sick, then get her better then a day or two later sick again, that was already a sign something wasn’t right but as Amelia and our baby attended daycare we just assumed they were bringing germs home. May 1st is when it really began, that morning Amelia woke up with bad stomach pains and wouldn’t move from the couch all day, we took her to the royal children’s and it was ruled out to be constipation.

Over that month she deteriorated rapidly, didn’t want to eat, was always tired and wanted to sleep, struggled to breath sometimes and her heart would beat really fast, she became very pale and completely not herself! A few days before the 25th she spiked a fever…and it was a big one her whole body was hot, but no matter how many doctors we saw no one helped…

We are almost at the end of our first month of chemo and my little girl shows me more and more everyday just how strong she is, I smile and act brave in front of her but I am crumbling on the inside, this can’t be real!

"as soon as I heard the word blasts I just knew, I looked at her and all I heard was the word leukaemia…everything after that was a blur and still is.."
Nadia Cali

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