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As the school day drew to a close May 25, 6-year-old Adrianna Brown interacted with her fellow kindergarten classmates like it was any other school day.
However, it was anything but a normal day for Adrianna and her mother, Kathy Brown.
That Wednesday marked the first time Adrianna had been to Shute School since she began treatment for leukemia at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., eight weeks earlier.
Kathy described the sight of Adrianna playing with her friends that day as “wonderful.”
“It was an excellent feeling because she hasn’t had that,” she said.
However, the road that got Adrianna back to East Peoria was a difficult one, and two-and-a-half years worth of trips to the Children’s Hospital will be in her future to help ensure her health.
Adrianna’s medical trauma began in December. Even though she received a flu shot in November, the 6-year old kept coming down with low-grade fevers. The fevers would come and go, making her availability to attend school difficult due to their sick student attendance policy.
A trip to the doctor told told Kathy that Adrianna had a common cold with some flu symptoms and that “she would come out of it.”
Her episodes of attending school intermittently continued as her symptoms worsened. She was taken to the doctor again when she was vomiting, and no definitive cause for her sickness was given.
Before the third trip to see a doctor, Kathy noticed blood spots and bruises on Adrianna in addition to the rest of her symptoms.
After performing several tests on her, it was determined that she had strep throat and “a very low platelet count.”
“It took them quite a little bit to find it because we went to the hospital and they said it was the stomach flu,” Kathy said. “It ended up being the third doctor that saw her (that found the problem).”
On March 29, Adrianna and her mother took an ambulance to St. Jude, which was an almost unexplainable experience, Kathy said.
“We were living in a different world,” she said. You don’t deal with the outside, you only deal with that.
“The experience was wonderful; they’re fantastic there at St. Jude with the children,” she added.
While at St. Jude, Adrianna underwent an assortment of treatments, from chemotherapy to steroids, to fight the leukemia.
As the school day drew to a close May 25, 6-year-old Adrianna Brown interacted with her fellow kindergarten classmates like it was any other school day.
However, it was anything but a normal day for Adrianna and her mother, Kathy Brown.
That Wednesday marked the first time Adrianna had been to Shute School since she began treatment for leukemia at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., eight weeks earlier.
Kathy described the sight of Adrianna playing with her friends that day as “wonderful.”
“It was an excellent feeling because she hasn’t had that,” she said.
However, the road that got Adrianna back to East Peoria was a difficult one, and two-and-a-half years worth of trips to the Children’s Hospital will be in her future to help ensure her health.
Adrianna’s medical trauma began in December. Even though she received a flu shot in November, the 6-year old kept coming down with low-grade fevers. The fevers would come and go, making her availability to attend school difficult due to their sick student attendance policy.
A trip to the doctor told told Kathy that Adrianna had a common cold with some flu symptoms and that “she would come out of it.”
Her episodes of attending school intermittently continued as her symptoms worsened. She was taken to the doctor again when she was vomiting, and no definitive cause for her sickness was given.
Before the third trip to see a doctor, Kathy noticed blood spots and bruises on Adrianna in addition to the rest of her symptoms.
After performing several tests on her, it was determined that she had strep throat and “a very low platelet count.”
“It took them quite a little bit to find it because we went to the hospital and they said it was the stomach flu,” Kathy said. “It ended up being the third doctor that saw her (that found the problem).”
On March 29, Adrianna and her mother took an ambulance to St. Jude, which was an almost unexplainable experience, Kathy said.
“We were living in a different world,” she said. You don’t deal with the outside, you only deal with that.
“The experience was wonderful; they’re fantastic there at St. Jude with the children,” she added.
While at St. Jude, Adrianna underwent an assortment of treatments, from chemotherapy to steroids, to fight the leukemia.
And so far, so good. Adrianna is currently in the first part of remission.
However, Kathy was cautiously optimistic with the remission diagnosis.
“With leukemia, it hides. They can say she’s in remission now, but a week from now it can come right back,” Kathy said. “That’s why they have to give her different types of chemo to try and keep it from coming back.”
As for Adrianna, Kathy said the entire process has made her grow up significantly in a short period of time.
“We’ve had attitude changes and it makes her grow up really quick. I see a whole different change in her,” she said. “We went down with a 6-year-old and came back being a 20-year-old. She’s grown so much through it all.”
Even though she has handled the ordeal well, Kathy said she still struggles with aspects like steroids and continually being at the hospital.
“It’s hard, and she deals with it better than an adult would, but she has her mood swings. The steroids (were hard) because she didn’t understand why she was hungry all the time or felt like she did.
“When she gets to the hospital it’s going to be a different story,” Kathy added. “She gets so tired of the hospital and doesn’t want to be there, but she has to deal with it because she is a very sick little girl and we’ve worked with her in every way to get her to understand that this is going to be a long process and she’s going to be better in the end.”
Adrianna and Kathy are on the road again, after the brief respite in their hometown. While Adrianna does receive treatment at home, the family will go to St. Jude every other week for two months, which began June 2. Later in the year, they will have to return to Memphis for two, six-week reinduction periods.
With all of the traveling that she has had to do, Kathy is slowly running out of days on her family medical leave plan. Despite her career insecurity, she remains focused on helping Adrianna.
“I’m not sure that I’ll have a job, but I can’t worry about that. I have to worry about her,” she said. “I will worry about that when it happens.”
And, what Adrianna and Kathy thought was a routine visit to school on May 25 turned out to be anything but.
Not only did Adrianna return and play with her friends and share hugs with teachers and administrators, she and her mother, were also given a check for more than $800 to help with expenses. She was also given a bicycle and several other gifts from faculty members at the school.
Kathy said she was taken back by the gesture.
“It was wonderful,” she said. “I mean, I was in shock because I never expected it. It was a total surprise what they did for her and how they did that.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better school for her to be at.”
