Infinite love for Isla

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Infinite love for Isla

Isla is a loving, silly, sassy 3 year old. On May 20, 2022, she was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma.

We are just at the start of a long journey to a healthy future. Please join us in prayer for Isla and her follow along with her journey here 💛

05/22/2026

May 20, 2022 was the start of this awful journey. 4 years ago today we finally knew why Isla had been so sick for months, after a CT scan the night before revealed a 4x4cm mass in her sinuses.

Rhabdomyosarcoma. Cancer.

For more than 1,462 days I have fought for this child, advocating for her, fighting for her. I have spent endless days and nights praying that I will get to watch her grow up, graduate 8th grade, high school, and college. That I get to see her get married, have kids, travel the world. That she never again has to fight for anything as hard as she fought for her life.

I thank God, every single day, honestly at least a few times an hour, that Isla is still here with me. That she is overall doing well, all things considered. That she can be a kid, go to school (most days), and play hard. I thank God that she is starting to forget a lot of her time in the hospital, most of the time she no longer likes to talk about her fight. I pray that she continues to be strong and brave and fierce. That she can overcome the obstacles and challenges we don’t know yet, the same way she is overcoming the ones we’re dealing with now and the ones she has already conquered.

This child is absolutely incredible in every sense of the word. She is brilliant, despite a treatment that threatens development. She is hilarious and witty when most people would not be. She is creative, kind, and passionate. She has truly turned her journey into one she can, and should, be proud of. While I fear for her future everyday, I have hope and excitement for it. To see the amazing things this child will accomplish and watch the rest of her story unfold is truly something I look forward to in every way.

While we don’t celebrate this date, I will always celebrate her. I will always remember it, dread it, and try to grow from it. I will always fight for her, for children like her. They deserve so much better. So much more.

Thank you for sticking around the past 4 years, for the love, prayers and support. Thank you for the kind words on my hardest days and the celebrations on the good ones. I still read every single comment and message shared to this page. Thank you for being on this journey with us.

💛

05/19/2026

Isla is already learning (or should I say perfecting) the new Dan + Shay songs.

Today I was able to get her front row to their concert in Tinley this year!!

I promise she is excited, she cannot wait! ❤️

I will forever be grateful for these guys for helping her through some of her hardest days. Music is her love language. Music and mama!

05/17/2026

If you’re local, mark your calendars! 🍋

05/16/2026

Never a dull moment with this one. She fell and bumped her chin this week, surprisingly this looks better than it did.

I love that she’s able to be a kid and play hard, she hasn’t let it slow her down! Silly little girl ❤️

We hope you’re all enjoying this summer weather this weekend!

05/11/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mama’s and like mama’s out there!!

We spent Friday night in the ER, again. Isla was up all night Thursday night into Friday throwing up and I think it irritated her nose. Friday night she got a bloody nose and it just would not stop. It bled for 2 full hours, luckily her ENT was on call. He told me to take her in and OF COURSE it stopped bleeding when we got there. Better safe than sorry though, especially with her.

We haven’t left the couch much all weekend though, she’s still not feeling well and I’m slightly under the weather too. She’s really bummed because tomorrow her Papa was supposed to go to school for her Butterflies & Buddies event. The poor kid has to miss everything. They will make it up with a donut and craft date when she’s feeling better, but she was so excited to show him her school.

Hopefully she starts feeling better soon. We’re still waiting to start IVIG. I spoke to someone at insurance the other day and I was told they “need more information on why she needs it”. Which is BS. Hopefully her doctor can talk to someone there and get this finalized soon. Seeing her sick all the time is really taking its toll on me and she is over it too.

Anyways, I hope everyone is enjoying their day with their loved ones 💕 I am so lucky to have these two.

05/06/2026

We’ve had a pretty eventful week.

Monday Isla went in for her blood therapy and to the ENT. Yesterday, she came home from school complaining that she cracked her tooth. She ended up needing to have two teeth pulled last night and I learned that her adult teeth are in bad shape. This is extremely emotional for me and I still haven’t wrapped my head around it.

We’re still waiting on her immunotherapy to start, insurance has denied her treatment. She’s been sick for about 6 weeks and this should help. Her counts are consistently low, she’s missed a ridiculous amount of school due to illness, and she is healing extremely slowly from her surgery in February. All things this treatment is supposed to help improve, yet insurance doesn’t think it’s necessary. She’s had multiple doctors say this is needed, yet insurance says no. Imagine that.

I’m beyond frustrated. I’m tired. I’m over all of this.

On top of all of this my sister is in the hospital again, luckily she’s doing well now, but could use some prayers. We need to get her home, we’re missing her.

She sure is cute with her “service pup” 💛

04/21/2026

Isla had her follow up with Oncology Friday. Her hemoglobin recovered on its own, woo!

However, the ball has started rolling for her immunotherapy and it is sounding like we will start this Friday. I, with her team, have decided that she will do at home WEEKLY injections. She will have a home health nurse come once a week to administer the shot, once we’re comfortable they will then teach me how to administer it. Due to the fact that Isla is extremely limited on accessible veins and we need that vein for therapeutic blood therapy, we agree that the injections are the best option.

Best option doesn’t always mean favorite option… Especially when you’re seven and needles are your “worst nightmare”. Sunday night Isla and I had a talk about what the plan was, she didn’t take it well, at all. Yesterday, I had to pick her up from school because of a stomachache. She is making herself physically ill thinking about this and I am lost.

If these shots don’t go well, we are looking at having to have another port placed. She is BEGGING for a port because the thought of weekly shots is that awful for her. She doesn’t understand the severity of having a port. It would make it more difficult to do the things she loves, we would have to go to the ER with any and every fever, the risks of infection… all of it. So, I’m really trying to talk up these weekly shots, without making the port seem like a failure if she does end up needing it. I’ve got a prescription for numbing cream and I told her to give me a list for bribes. That made her smile for a minute when she started rattling off toys she’s been wanting, like we need more toys, but if it will get us through this I’m in. So, if anyone has ideas for bribes let me hear it, this mama needs to stock up!!

Unfortunately, this is looking like it will be a long term treatment. Her immunologist said we are looking at a minimum of 2 years, but with her diagnosis it may be much longer.

Please say some extra prayers for us. That Isla can keep being the badass she is and handle these shots like a champ and we can continue living our most “normal” lives. Please pray for my mama heart, this is going to be extremely hard on me. Isla doesn’t do well at all with needles now. I don’t talk about it often, but when she needs a poke it takes 3+ people to hold her down, plus the person with the needle, sometimes we need back up even for that. She kicks and screams and sobs, grabs at the needle and frankly turns into a different kid. It completely breaks my heart that she has to go through this and at home it will be me and a nurse, please pray that we are enough to get her through this. Thank you 💛

Here’s a picture from this weekend, we had a mommy & Isla date to get “permanent” bracelets. Mine is permanent, but Isla cannot have anything permanent when she gets scans so hers has a clasp. She still doesn’t take it off, but we will not have to break it when we need it off now, haha!

04/15/2026

No real health updates for you all. We saw immunology and ENT last week. She will start immunotherapy shots soon, but I’m not sure when, and we will follow up with ENT again next week for another ear clean out. She is healing, but slowwwwly and she still has a lot of the surgical packing still in her ear.

We see oncology Friday to follow up regarding her low hemoglobin from the ER. Hopefully it was just a side effect from her blood therapy and has started to recover on its own.

Other than that, we’ve been enjoying the nice weather and yesterday she decided to chop about 6 inches of hair off! I am OBSESSED!!!

04/07/2026

This kid missed the ER staff so much she just couldn’t stay away. Saturday night her ear started draining, which I brushed off as expected since she’s still not completely healed from surgery. Yesterday, she woke up crying that her ear hurt and she was miserable. She doesn’t typically complain of ear pain, so this was unusual for her. She also had a low-grade fever of 100 degrees.

She was able to enjoy her Easter, but she was clearly in pain all day. After talking with ENT today, and after she threw up from the pain, I brought her in. Her infection markers are elevated, indicating a bacterial infection, and her hemoglobin is low. The low blood counts could be because she had blood therapy on Friday, but they haven’t been this low since October 2023, when she was still in treatment. So I will follow up with oncology tomorrow to get her an appointment coming up.

She recieved IV antibiotics here and we will continue oral antibiotics and ear drops at home. Wednesday we have an appointment with immunology to figure out a plan for IVIG. I anticipate that they will not want to wait to start with another infection and round of antibiotics, but we will see what they say. Thursday we will see ENT to follow up for the ear infection.

It’s been a rough day, but I’m so thankful to the team here and the sedation/IV team for making sure she’s comfortable and taken care of. We can’t wait to get home and get some snuggles in.

No matter how awful she’s feeling and how much pain she’s in, she’s still the silliest little thing. It breaks my heart to see her in pain, but I can’t imagine how much pain she would be in if she were a “typical” kid. She’s the toughest, bravest, goofiest kid I know 💛

04/06/2026

Hoppy Easter, everyone! 🐰💐🐣

Address

Orland Park Place
Orland Park, IL
60462

Website

https://gofund.me/68943a03

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