Today is September 13th – the 13th day of Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Today I want to honor Elizabeth Ussery. Elizabeth was first diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) in April 1994, just one month before her 3rd birthday. With just a few bumps in the road with fevers and pneumonia, she went through the 2+ years of treatment without any serious problems. She finished treatment in 1996, and life returned to normal. Fast forward twelve years – Yes, TWELVE years! Sixteen-year old Elizabeth felt dizzy a couple times and began running a fever in April 2008. Her mom, Anne, took her to the doctor and asked him to do blood work. The doctor didn’t think blood work was needed but went ahead with it anyway. Elizabeth’s counts were way off, and they headed to Vanderbilt where she was diagnosed a second time with ALL. Even though it had been 12 years since she’d finished the earlier treatment, this was considered a relapse. Well below 1% of leukemia (ALL) patients relapse after 5 years. Most of the treatment for relapsed ALL would be intense inpatient chemo, and Elizabeth was scheduled to finish treatment in March 2011. Her treatment had many ups and downs – fevers, infections - until in February 2011, she was diagnosed with another form of leukemia, AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). The only treatment option was a bone marrow transplant. The bone marrow transplant could only happen if she was in remission from the AML, and that would take even more very intense chemo. Unfortunately, in addition to the intense chemo, Elizabeth had to deal with infections and other problems until her body was just too worn out to continue. On June 8, 2011, Elizabeth died at the age of 20. Larisa and I went to Elizabeth’s visitation. There was a long, long line of people waiting to pay their respects to this wonderful, vivacious and compassionate young woman. It was such a testament to the number of lives she influenced for the good. As I re-read Elizabeth’s CaringBridge site and looked through photos, I was struck by how many photos there were of her with little kids battling cancer. She was hospitalized so much of the time that she was like a big sister to the younger children there. However, her loving heart included more than just the cancer kids; she enjoyed chatting with the families of the kids, along with the nurses and staff, too. Whenever I visited Lily in the hospital, I usually saw Elizabeth there, too, and she was invariably holding or playing with one of the younger kids or hanging out at the nurses’ station talking to them. She had a ready smile and a friendly nature. She didn’t limit her expressions of care to just words, though. When Angelie Del Toro’s sister, Ashley, was expecting a baby (I wrote about Angelie on September 3rd), Elizabeth made a baby quilt for her. That’s just one example of how Elizabeth put her love into action. She loved boating. She and her parents, Charlie and Anne, along with her older sister, Katherine, would go boating as often as possible. Another favorite activity was going to UT ballgames. Elizabeth loved to tailgate. The year after Elizabeth’s death, Anne sent a photo of Elizabeth and her black lab, Jake, to the Vanderbilt “House Organ” newspaper for their animal “Pets of Vanderbilt” issue. The photo of Elizabeth and Jake won “Duo of the Year.” Anne said, “Elizabeth looked forward to the pet issue every year, so I knew that I wanted to submit her picture. One of the things I love about this picture is that beautiful smile. She maintained her smile and amazing attitude through everything. She brightened the day of everyone she came in contact with.” Elizabeth, you were such a unique and beautiful person. You made life better for all those around you. Your kindness and fun-loving nature showed through in your words and actions. You will not only live on in the memories of family and friends, but in the memories of many hospitalized children whose fears and anxieties were soothed by your loving care and fun-loving example. We love you and miss you.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:49:32 +0000
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