Our Janessa was born in October of 2006 and within the first week of her life, genetic testing revealed that she had been born with Down Syndrome.  Because of her Trisomy 21 (as Down's is known in the medical world), the first few months of her life were filled with different milestones than "normal" children.  At one month old her heart was scanned for defects. Her heart checked out perfectly.  At 5-8 weeks, the gastrointestinal systems - again, perfect.  Her hearing?  Perfect.  Her eyes at 4-6 months showed astigmatism in both eyes, but completely disappeared by 10 months of age.  At 15 months when she received her immunizations, she actually developed the measles. At 18 months (mid-April), she had routine blood work taken to check her thyroid levels and that's when we noticed the first problem. Her platelets were only 14,000.  They redid the blood work to be sure and three days later her platelets were 11,000. Our family doctor at first thought it was some type of autoimmune disease because her white counts were also quite low.

 
On April 29, 2008 we had a bone marrow sample taken by an oncologist and Janessa was diagnosed with MDS (Myelodysplastic Syndrome). 15% of her cells were cancerous.  At 30% it would be diagnosed as AML (acute myeloid leukemia). She began her first treatment on May 1st. She received a total of six treatments and spent 131 days in the hospital over a 10 month period of time.  Her treatment ended on January 6, 2009 and as of today, she is still in remission. She has monthly visits to check her blood work and so far, everything has been perfect. She also started preschool in the Fall of 2009 and receives speech and occupational therapies 3 times a week.  She is our hero because through it all, she always had a smile on her face, made everyone around her smile, and would go to the other kids in treatment and give hugs.  We are so proud of her and can't wait to see what she has yet to accomplish in this life.

Update: November 2012

Janessa just recently turned six years old.  She continues her visits to the oncologist, but only four times a year.  She continues in remission, and in January 2013, we will celebrate her fourth year!  She still goes to preschool and we hope that in the fall of next year she will begin kindergarten.  We are so thrilled with her progress and the fact that she is so active and healthy.

Update: November 2016

Janessa is currently 7 years out of treatment and still cancer-free. Just recently, she had to go through about three hours of tests to see how her body is adjusting after the chemotherapy she received.   Her heart echo (which is always of the most concern) came back absolutely perfect. No issues due to her treatments. Her platelet count, 11,000 before treatment, was well over 200,000 which is awesome !!!!.   She is still resistant to many antibiotics because of her treatments, but her overall health has greatly improved. On average, she would miss 3 weeks of school each April and October, due to colds/allergies.   This is the first year she has only missed a few scattered days through out the school year. Her body is gradually getting stronger and she is better able to fight off infections. She is currently in third grade and loves her friends at school.

Written by Julie Leigh Joseph, Janessa’s Mom