Anna Sicotte was only 20 months old when she was diagnosed with T-Cell ALL. Her dad Tom will never forget the exact moment on May 29, 2008 when the pediatrician delivered this shocking news.
"I remember clear as day Anna wearing a yellow fleece pullover and squeezing her, telling myself not to drop her," he said, "It was like a wave went through me and took every bit of life and feeling out of me. I went completely numb."
Anna's parents, Tom and Cindy, found being at the hospital quite a challenge, but were comforted by meeting so many other children and families enduring the same struggle. "You get to know them and pray for them and hope they get to go home," Tom said, "Then one day you walk by their room and it's empty and you hope they went home but then find out they didn't make it. Those are the really hard days."
When Anna did not achieve a remission by the goal of 28 days, doctors determined that the best option for her survival would be a bone marrow transplant. On July 29, two months after her diagnosis, Anna went into remission and the search for her marrow donor began. Tom and Cindy were tested, but were not a match. They have no other children, so a search through the National Bone Marrow Registry began. One month later, they heard the news that Anna had 300 possible matches! Of those, they had to narrow it down to the closest match. By September 11, they had their perfect match.
It was a hot summer night in Houston and Ashley McCamant clearly remembers the call she received. "It was just a regular day in July 2008," she said, "I worked a 12 hour shift at the hospital, had arrived home and was sitting at my kitchen island eating and going through mail when around 8:30 p.m. my phone rang." Ashley had been on the National Bone Marrow registry since she was in nursing school and had two friends with leukemia. Both of these friends had been saved by a bone marrow transplant so Ashley got on the list.
Receiving the call that night and hearing that she was one of 300 people who were a possible match was very exciting. She was asked if she would be willing to continue with testing and of course, she enthusiastically said yes. After an appointment to do many tests, Ashely received another call telling her that she was a perfect match and if she was willing, a baby girl with leukemia needed her bone marrow. With zero hesitation, Ashley agreed to donate. All she knew of her recipient was her age, gender and diagnosis, so Ashley and her family began to affectionately refer to her as "Baby Girl".
Although nervous about the procedure, Ashley reminded herself that any risk to herself paled in comparison to the life of "Baby Girl". Fortunately, things went very smoothly. The entire procedure took about an hour. Her pain was very well managed while in recovery and she was sent home with pain medicine. "I was pretty sore the first couple of days," she said, "They did bilateral aspirations from my pelvis, so I had two puncture sites low down on my back, just above my buttocks." But the pain was not severe enough to keep her from going out to eat with her parents that same night.
"The best phrase I've managed to come up with to describe the experience is that it was a minor inconvenience," Ashley said, "but even that seems too strong of a word. It was a tiny interruption in my life, a little blip."
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Boston, Anna's troubles were nowhere near the finish line. She had to undergo intense chemotherapy and radiation to prepare for transplant. Her dad had to keep working at home in Connecticut while Anna and her mom Cindy stayed at the hospital in Boston. Anna was in isolation, so even when he did get to visit on the weekends, only one parent is allowed to stay at the hospital, so Tom had to stay at the Ronald McDonald house.
Anna did well with the transplant but it did mean she had to spend the next year in isolation. No one could visit her in her home. And she couldn't go anywhere. "Living in the Northeast made this seem like a very long winter," Tom said.
Cancer is tough no matter who you are or what your age, but for parents, having a child with cancer is devastating. "You pray to God to take it from them and put it in you so they don't have to deal with it," Tom said, "Having to watch your child scream while doctors and nurses hold her down trying to get a line started in her arm and there's nothing you can do but feel helpless. Having to make decisions that have an impact on your child's health like filling her full of poison or radiation that can cause other damage down the road, dealing with insurance companies that say they won't cover something or that you're not allowed to go to Boston for transplant because it's considered out of network. Keeping a brave face on for everyone and then breaking down when you're alone because you're scared to death."
One year following Anna's transplant, Tom and Cindy were asked if they would like to meet her donor. They most definitely wanted to meet the person who saved their little girl's life. Another year passed without a word, but then they got a call from Boston once again asking if they wanted to meet the donor. They were given all the information for contacting Anna's donor. "I instantly called my wife at work," said Tom, "I said, 'her name is Ashley' and Cindy said, 'Whose name is Ashley?' so I said, 'Anna's donor!'". Tom then sat down to email Ashley.
It was a Tuesday evening, right after Anna's soccer practice, that the Sicotte family met Ashley, the beautiful young nurse whose marrow saved their daughter. For Tom and Cindy, meeting Ashley was "Instant love, like when your child is born," Tom described, "She's so humble and ho hum about what she did too, no big deal. For us, it's a big deal. It was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives and a life changing moment for me."
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| Anna and Ashley, a perfect match |
Although Tom lives in Connecticut and Ashley lives in Houston, these two have decided to run the upcoming Chevron Houston Marathon and raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Team In Training. They have formed a team called Team Anna/Tash (Tash is Ashley's nickname) and are doing this in honor of adorable Anna who is living a healthy life free of cancer.
If you would like to donate to Team Anna/Tash, just click on their team page:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/houston15/TeamAnnaTashnhx
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| Anna with her daddy, Tom |
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| Anna with her mommy, Cindy |
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