Kaelyn was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Stage 2A on May 20, 2024. She woke up the Saturday morning before with extremely slurred speech and she could not walk unassisted. After a ER visit to a local hospital, she was transferred to Stead Family Children’s Hospital at the University of Iowa. An on call resident felt something off in her neck which caused them to run additional tests, and a mass was found on top of her right lung. She was diagnosed with Paraplastic Syndrome, which is when the body starts to attack the cerebellum as it tries to fight the cancer. This is very rare in children, and we were told by numerous Dr’s that this is the first time they had ever seen this in a pediatric patient. She went through four cycles of chemo, and lots of physical therapy. She rang the bell on August 30th, 2024. Today, you wouldn’t even know that anything happened, besides the scars from biopsies, and her port.
We were told about Make-A-Wish by one of the hospital social workers. They help us with the application and provide a ton of information. We started talking right away about what she would want to do if she was accepted, it helped give us all something to look forward to while going through treatment. We were all so excited when we found out that she was eligible! That is when everything got real and she really started to think about what her wish would be.
Kaelyn’s wish was to go to Hawaii! While she was in treatment, she could not spend a lot of time in the sun (chemo makes you burn easily) so she really wanted to go to a beach so she could be in the sun and get a tan! Hawaii was absolutely amazing! Not only was it beautiful, but the people were so nice. If they noticed that she was wearing her Make-A-Wish shirt or pin, there was always some kind of recognition. We kept hearing that Hawaii loves their Make-A-Wish kids! Make-A-Wish lined up a horseback riding excursion as well as a catamaran tour with snorkeling. Both of these experiences were so amazing! I think our favorite part was just being able to get away and spend time with each other.
The experience gave us all something positive to focus on when we were going through the worst experience of our lives. It was great to have something big to look forward to! Kaelyn’s illness impacted our entire family, it doesn’t just affect one person. It obviously is rough for the parents to watch their child go though a horrible illness and the treatments associated with it. It also affects the siblings, their entire world is flipped upside down with a cancer diagnosis.
