Charlotte is from Columbia. She is 8.
Diagnosis: B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
Story you really want to share:
I can’t choose just one, so I’ll share two stories.
The first happened when Charlotte began to lose her hair in her second cycle of chemo, about 3 months after diagnosis. We had talked with her about hair loss and that it would likely happen, but timing and how much hair is lost are very child-dependent. We had no idea how much hair she would lose. As her hair started to fall out, she expressed how much she hated feeling it on her neck, in her shirt, and on her face when she slept at night. We casually mentioned to her that some kids choose to shave their head but that it was completely her choice. The following week, she told Chris that she wanted her head shaved, and she wanted him to do it. So, he did, in our bathroom, with all of us there. And all of us, except Charlotte, were crying. Once her hair was gone, we found ourselves offering all kinds of wigs, scarves, and headbands, assuming that she’d want to cover her baldness. After refusing all that we were offering for multiple days, she finally looked at Chris and me and said, “I just want to be with my normal bald head”. It was then that we realized that this was “normal” to her; it was us that was scared.
The second story happened during a clinic visit for chemo. One of Charlotte’s clinic nurses, Debbie, was telling Charlotte about another girl in the clinic that day who was getting her port accessed for the first time. She was really nervous and was asking a lot of questions about how it feels. Debbie asked us if we thought Charlotte would be willing to meet and talk to this little girl about her port. I did not think Charlotte would agree, but she proved us wrong as she has done time and time again. She told Debbie that she wanted to help if she could. She went with Debbie to her room and told her all about the numbing cream that is used, what it feels like to have her port accessed, and then independently asked her if she wanted to see her port. She shared everything she could to try to help. She watches everything, so she watched when the nurses took the equipment into her room to access her port. She waited to see how it would go and then silently clapped when she heard them say “all done”. She then asked Debbie if she could go tell her “Good job”. At the end of Charlotte’s clinic visit that day, she offered to have this other little girl watch her get her port deaccessed so she knew what that would feel like, too.
Charlotte is in her second-to-last cycle before she goes to maintenance therapy. She continues to be in remission with no leukemia cells seen on her last blood draw/flow cytometry. We have an end of treatment date of June 30, 2026! Charlotte loves soccer, gymnastics, jumping on the trampoline, painting, and bracelet and necklace making.
Her parents are Chris and Kristen Medley