Prayers for Addalynne
JEFFERSON – Four year old Addalynne “Addy” Morrison is a girl who likes pink and princesses. Break out a camera and Addy will strike a perfect pose.
One evening in mid-October, after her baby brother, Samuel, 3, had gone to sleep, Addy’s mother, Brittany Anderson Morrison was giving her a bath. Taking advantage of the quiet with baby brother down for the night, Brittany and Addy were having girl time, putting on baby powder and lotion.
“We were doing fun girl stuff when I found a lump in Addy’s stomach,” Brittany said. “The next day we went to Dr. Dan Church and he sent us for an X-ray.”
Brittany said the hospital saw a mass in Addy’s abdomen and Church referred them to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC to have a followup CT scan and blood work Oct. 19. Their fears were confirmed by the results. Addy had a Wilms tumor the size of a softball on her left kidney. There were multiple small ones on her right kidney and a small spot on her lung. Wilms tumors are the leading cause of kidney cancer in children and the fourth most common childhood cancer in children 3 to 8 years old. There is an average of 460 new cases of Wilms tumors reported annually in the United States, according to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“With a Wilms tumor there are usually no symptoms. She wasn’t sick. There wasn’t anything except the mass,” Brittany said. “There was one small spot on her lung but it isn’t considered lung cancer because it didn’t originate there.”
On Oct. 23, Addy underwent surgery to have a port inserted through which she could receive chemotherapy treatments. The next day, Brittany, 30, and her husband, Erik, 39, met Dr. Michael Wollman, a pediatric oncologist at Children’s Hospital Church referred to them.
“Dr. Wollman said, ‘So, you are Dr. Church’s patient. I couldn’t get him off of the phone because he didn’t want to have to call you and tell you (the diagnoses),'” Brittany said. “They’ve been so wonderful at Children’s and so has Dr. Church. He gave me his cellphone number to text in the middle of the night if I need him. His nurses have even stopped by the house to check on us.”
The good news is that a Wilms tumor is considered one of the most curable types of childhood cancer.
“The prognosis is really good. They said if you have to pick a childhood cancer to have, this is the one you would want,” Britttany said. “That is how I am handling this right now.”
After her first round of chemotherapy Oct. 24 Addalynne became quite ill. Brittany said the doses are one large dose, two small ones and a large one again. The next treatment Oct. 30 was much better tolerated by the 4-year-old. Plus, they received great news – the large tumor in her left kidney had shrunk.
Brittany said it was hard to believe Addy is sick after seeing her up and running around after that second treatment.
On Nov. 16, after a second small dose of chemotherapy, the Morrisons received more good news.
“She has received three treatments so far and the tumor has shrunk from nine inches to three inches in circumference. You can’t feel the tumors on her right kidney because they are so small so the doctors think they are shrinking significantly also,” Brittany said.
The plan right now is to continue chemotherapy and, after her final treatment scheduled for Nov. 27, if all goes well, schedule Addy for surgery to remove the large Wilms tumor in early December. With it, she will lose her whole left kidney and a portion of the right where the other tumors were found.
“Any lymph nodes that show traces of cancer will also be taken out,” Brittany said. “After that she will have at least six months of chemotherapy followed up with radiation for the spot on her lung and on her pelvis.”
In the meantime, friends, family and strangers are rallying around the Morrisons. Even Addy’s pre-kindergarten teacher has made sure homework is sent home so Addy won’t fall behind. Brittany said she can’t thank everyone enough for their help.
“My mom, Sue Ellen Kingan, and my sister, Courtney Long, have been so wonderful. They are out shopping for me today so I don’t have to go out of the house and can just spend time with her,” she said.
Brittany took some of that time to post pictures of Addy in her ‘Team Addy,’ shirt created by Addy’s Godmother, Becky Richards, on the Facebook page, Prayers for Addalynne.
The back of the shirts read, ‘Cancer may have started this fight, but Addy will finish it.’
With another large dose of chemotherapy coming up on Nov. 13, Addy has begun to lose her hair in clumps, Brittany said. So, mother and daughter spent part of their day Thursday on the Internet picking out wigs that suit Addy’s personality. She selected two hot pink and one vibrant blue. Brittany also posted photos of them, along with other photos of the aspiring young model mugging for the camera on the Facebook page.
“We haven’t said the ‘C’ word in front of her. She calls it her bump,” said Brittany. “She knows that when her bump goes away she will be OK and her hair will grow back. She is handling it a lot better than I am.”
Church, along with his staff, have put together the Central Greene Pediatrics Benefit Ride and Spagehetti Dinner for Addalynne that will be held Sunday. Registration for the ride is being held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Church’s office, 236 Elm St., Waynesburg. The ride will begin at 1 p.m. from Church’s office and make a pass by the Morrison’s residence in Jefferson along the way. The spaghetti dinner, following the ride, will start at 4 p.m. at the Jefferson Volunteer Fire Company fire hall.
The cost for a single rider is $20 and passengers are $15. The price for riders includes the dinner at the conclusion of the ride. Those wishing to attend just the dinner will pay the cost of $7 for adults and $4 for children five and under.