June 5th is National Cancer Survivor’s Day – We hear the story of a young girl with cancer who never stopped smiling in this weeks Covenant Children’s Report. Abigail Gensler is a survivor! She loves Minecraft just like other girls her age.
Her mother Jennifer Whitaker said, “they knew it was cancer of some type they just didn’t know what type.” Jennifer never expected the diagnosis, because Ewing Sarcoma is so rare it took time to diagnose. “It’s one percent of children that get it and it’s usually boys rather than girls. It had been like 2 weeks between the time that I took her to Urgent Care and to get the MRI and it had already wrapped around a rib. We had to take out her rib, while they took out her rib they did the bone marrow to see if it was in her blood. It wasn’t. After that we started Chemo.”
I asked Abigail what the hardest part of Cancer for her was, and she said “Chemo.” And I wanted to know was it hard to lose your hair? “No! Actually that was not hard, my step dad shaved it off cause it was falling all over the place. He’s a hair styler. My mom said when my hair grew out I’m going to get colors in my hair.? What colors? “Pink, yeah pink.”
Mom Jennifer says, “she’s strong and she did it. She’s in remission now. This was her second home, and she was never sad to come. She always looked forward to coming and playing with the nurses.”
Registered nurse Ashley Shock knows Abigail and her family very well. “I’ve been with her since the very first from the hospital and when she moved over here to the Doctor’s office.”
Abigail knows she couldn’t have gone trhough everything without her family and her nurses at covenant. “They like take me back and forth and stuff and they hold my hand when i’m going through something and when I throw up during Chemo. I would say thank you for all of your help and I love you.” Even though Abigail is in remission she still has to follow up with her doctor. Ashley says, “they folllow up with us monthly to every three months depending on what type of cancer they have – we do bloodwork and continue to see them up to ten years.”
If you ask Abigail how she made it through all the surgeries and treatments…”i fight 100%. June 5th is Abigail’s 8th birthday and she and her family are on their Make-A-Wish trip to Disney in Florida. Happy Birthday Abigail!