Lyla was diagnosed with Wilms tumor at 14 months old. She is in remission.
What’s one thing you wish you had known in those first 48 hours?
“How fast they are at getting kids started on treatment, or at least how fast the time seems to go.”
What helped you the most in those first 48 hours?
“The hospital staff on the floor stepping in when I was across the state with no family, exhausted. They played with my daughter in the activity room on the floor, she told me to go have a shower, a cry, and a nap. When I did I felt so much better.”
What’s is one moment in those first 48 hours that you’ll never forget?
“My daughter’s super tight grip on my hand the whole time we were on the life flight across the state to the children’s hospital after her abnormal ultrasound in the ER. Never the way we thought she would have experienced her first flight, she never cried either, she was so brave for being so little. ”
If you could go back, what’s one thing you’d tell yourself?
“Don’t forget to take care of yourself. I was up for 48 hours straight when she got diagnosed because I was in shock. I feel like the whole first few days were a blur partially due to sleep deprivation, and I don’t feel I was able to fully be there for my child because of that.”
This First 48 story was submitted by Mikayla.