General Chat

Such sad news, my thoughts are sent to her family.

Annie,


Such sad news about Aria, she touched the soul of so many people. My prayers and positive thoughts for her and the family will continue.

May she rest in peace and may her family find comfort and solace.

Another Angel, to look down on us all.

Bridget
07.15 hrs Spain

Poor little Aria, she has known so much suffering but I hope her family will hold on to any good memories which will give them comfort. They will also be comforted by the fact that she is now without pain, a little angel gone before them

Rest in Peace, Aria

Lizx

hello annie, thankyou for updating us but it is with great sadness to learn aria has passed away. im glad she will suffer no more and is at peace. condolences and prayers to her family.

florence
in the hebrides

UPDATE:


It is with much sadness that I would like to let you all know that little Aria MacDonald has lost her battle with her many illnesses and has passed away.

She is now in a better place and is free from pain and suffering.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family now in this time of sadness for them

Annie

xxxxxx

Aria and her family remain in my quiet time each morning.

Bridget

So sad that the family and especially Aria is suffering this way, and so much indecision on the diagnosis is unfair too. The family must feel they are on a rollercoaster at the mo and not sure where they are. Hope Aria will respond to treatment and not be too poorly with it and hope her brother is soon lots better too. His sister needs him as do his parents.

Lizx

So sorry to read this news. How devastating to be given this diagnosis after being told little Aria didn't have it.
Thoughts and prayers to her and her family, and hope Asher is feeling better soon.
xx

Hello Annie,
I am hoping that Aria, is at least holding herb own and that herbnrother is feeling better.

Easter prayers are sent to the family,

Bridget

Spain 09.26 hrs Spain

Unfortunately some bad news. The poor little thing does have cancer. How much more does she have to go through?

The following is an excerpt taken from Aria's website, written by her mum and is dated 15/04/2011:


We are shocked.

Aria does indeed have PTLD, post transplant cancer.

We knew that her EBV count had come down but her bone marrow and infection fighting cells had not bounced back. They are pretty much sitting at zero. And have been for two week or more.

I guess alarm bells must of started ringing today. They decided that they would re biopsy her on Monday if things didn’t improve over the weekend.

However when the surgeon came back a couple of hours after rounds and my alarm bells started to ring. Getting a visit ‘after hours’ from the surgeon is always bad news.

He is the chief transplant surgeon and very experienced. He sat down the the chief pathologist and together had a meeting and read the slides. It isn’t obvious PTLD but it does look suspicious, there are big black cells which look like cancer cells in Aria’s bone marrow. That is a basic explanation, I was so shocked I don’t think I took it in very well.

Aria is in the PICU and had her first round of chemo lite today. She did pretty well. They started her on steroids. Everything will go in a cycle, once a week. How many cycles? Who knows, will depend on how she responses to it.

So we are feeling shell shocked and sad. We thought PTLD was off the table. We rejoiced that it was.

Please pray for us. Asher is also pretty sick with a double ear infection, poor boy.

We feel really downcast. Life is tough right now.






Thoughts and prayers for the family. Hope that they can get through this.

Annie

xxxxxx

Another update from her website. It is dated 13 April 2011:

Yesterday we did the blood test for Aria’s EBV/Mono/G Fever. Her count got as high as 9 million at last count and today it is………

870,000!!!!!

Wow!!!

This is a huge drop and very unexpected. The Infectious Disease team told us we would optimistic if it dropped a bit but in reality we should be happy if at least it didn’t get higher. So the result today is very very good. Considering she has only had two doses of the medicine.

Also, finally, Aria’s outputs are better! She has been able to go back up on feeds 80 tonight and goal is 100.

What is less than miraculous is that Aria has been admitted since Sunday. We took her in for high fevers and turns out she has a pneumonia. Not a terrible one but not a great one. She has improved with a change to IV ABX but has plateaued the past couple of days and still spiking temps so they switched them today.

We have had friends over from NZ and to stay with us for a couple of days. Sadly we were in hospital but Hamish and I got to spend time with them and they visited Aria in hospital. We had a great time with them. Asher really took to Peter and Margaret (and they to him) in a very short space of time and was quite heartbroken this morning when they left. So Hamish is taking him to the movies today to distract him and cheer him up.

Today we are really praying that Aria will not spike a fever in the morning tomorrow and we can get home! Having only one day at home allowed us to recharge our batteries but we need more.




Thinking of her and the family. Hope they will continue with the positive steps forward.

Annie

xx

A special prayer and message for Aria and her family, my she remain safe and well, I am sure that her family must be so delighted.
Do let us know when Aria is going to Disney world, she must be so excited.
Spain 12.40hrs

What wonderful news to read and a great way of starting my day. However I shall continue to keep Aria and all her family in my daily quietbtime and prayers.

Thank you Annie from NZ for keepingbus all updated

09.35 hrs Spain

I hope this little girl continues to do well, great news that it wasn't post transplant cancer. Her family must be incredibly relieved and have been through so much heartbreak already. I wish them every happiness.

Some good news. She doesn't have the cancer that they suspected. It was a very bad case of glandular fever.




Aria MacDonald has beaten the odds. Last week, doctors told the four-year-old Auckland preschooler's parents that she almost certainly had post-transplant cancer.

Aria received a liver, kidney, pancreas and small bowel transplant at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha last May – her second transplant after an earlier one failed.

Born with a rare condition that prevented her from digesting food, she would have died of liver failure without a successful transplant.

After she was admitted to hospital last week with a mystery illness, Omaha doctors said test results indicated there was an 85 per cent chance it was post-transplant cancer – a rare but serious complication caused by the virus responsible for glandular fever.

However, initial biopsy results that came back on Saturday were enough to confirm Aria did not have cancer. Instead, it was a particularly bad case of glandular fever, her mother Anita wrote on the family's blog.

The week had been "a huge emotional roller-coaster", Mrs MacDonald wrote.

Aria was still at risk of other infections because of the immune-suppressing drugs she needed to take to prevent her body rejecting the transplanted organs.

"But despite needing [oxygen] at night and being a bit more sleepy she is pretty well. We continue to pray this is the extent of her illness, the new drug starts to work and she is spared from infection."

The family hope to return to New Zealand later this year, after a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World for Aria's fifth birthday.

Thinking of Aria today with a special consideration as my great niece was allowed home yesterday. Not the same illness as this little child but they are both suffering.
I cannot imagine the pain and sorrow the family are experiencing so all I can do is send positive thoughts and continue to talk to whom my children call"Him upstairs".

Annie, thank you for giving us such a good insight to what is happening.


11.08 hrs. Spain

Special prayers and positive thoughts not only for this young child but also for her entire family. Thanks for the update. I am also offering prayers and positive thoughts for all the people who are working hard to help this little one.

08.40hrs Spain

Positive and healing thoughts for this brave little girl and her family. It's difficult to imagine what she's already been through and now having to face this as well.

Cath xx

Dear Annie from NZ

Hello

Hope you are okay.

Unbelievable that the little one should have to be going through this.

Sending caring and wam thoughts to her and her parents.

Take very gentle care
Very sincere wishes
xx

Healing thoughts and prayers for Aria, she is too young to have to go through so much.