Amber Z


			Amber Z ~ ‘Animals - Cute & Cuddly’





		DATE OF BIRTH: September 3rd, 2005 ILLNESS: Neuroblastoma ~ Childhood Cancer


	Amber’s Quilt Stitchers: Australian: Catherine~Melbourne, Glenda~Melbourne, Jayne~Sydney, Kay~Gladstone, Linde~Ambrose, Lydia~Capella, Mandy~Tasmania, Rene~Gladstone, Ruth~Gordon, Sam~Mt.Larcom, Tania~Werribee. International: Cathy~USA Elaine~UK, Fiona~Scotland, Katherine~UK, Mary B~USA, Mary C~USA, Susan~Canada.

			Fabric Donation: Kaitlyn H’s Family

‘Thank You’ from Amber’s Family

WOW! It is amazing! We received it yesterday! It is beautiful! The people who put their spare time, love and effort into such wonderful pieces of work deserve more than just thank you.

Amber loves it, pointing out all of the different animals – she already knows how to say a few of them and no doubt it won’t take long to learn the rest. Mind you getting a picture of her with it while she was awake was very difficult as she doesn’t sit still for one second! BUT I managed to get one with her asleep today! It is already on her bed.

We were told last month that from the test completed in January and February that the tumor hasn’t gotten any larger, she no longer has cancer in her bone marrow and that she is in remission! FANTASTIC NEWS!!!! But she still has a few years yet of checks etc, hopefully things can only get better from here!

Please thank all of the wonderful people that helped make Amber’s quilt.

Love from

Amos, Sarah, Amber & Heidi

BIOGRAPHY

Born 3/9/2005 a healthy little girl weighing 8pounds 9 ounces. Very contented little girl until she started not sleeping through the night, wasn't smiling, and had a slightly rounded tummy.

We went to the hospital on 1 Jan 06 and were told 1 1/2 weeks later after numerous tests, 3 lumbar punctures and a tumor biopsy that she has Stage 4 Neuroblastoma - with a tumor the size of a mandarin growing on top of her liver - the cancer is also in her live, and in her bone marrow. it was too risky for them to operate to take out the primary tumor, so they decided that Chemotherapy was the best way to go - to try and shrink it.

Amber finished her first protocol in April, receiving good news from the tests done - resulting in them no longer being able to detect it in her bone marrow. The tumor had also reduced dramatically in size!

However their decision was continue with another 3 months of chemo, before another round of tests, to decide whether to operate to take out the primary tumor.

So we have more tests on their way - hopefully more good news is to follow!!!

Amber’s Update ~ March 2007

Amber has been fantastic. Her last round of chemotherapy was in July 2005 and the doctors decided that they would operate. It was the scariest thing of our lives the day that she went in for her operation. The surgeons told us that they didn’t know how successful it was going to be until they got in there – even when we asked how long it was going to take – they just said the longer the better! August 23rd at 1pm she went in and didn’t come out into Pediatric ICU until six thirty - sevenish – it was the longest 5 ½ hours of our lives. But the surgeon came to see us with the most fantastic news – they were able to get 95% of the tumor and what was removed was calcified – which meant that the last 6 months of chemotherapy had worked.

Amber spent 2 days in ICU and was then transferred to Brookman Ward where she spent the next 4 days recovering. She was amazing – by the fourth day she was only on Panadol for pain relief and she was up out of bed playing.

The surgeons and doctors couldn’t believe how well she was recovering from the operation.

Prior to all of this we had arranged her 1st Birthday party for Saturday 1st September – if worse came to worse we could have cancelled it – but she was home on the Thursday before and had a wonderful time at her party - although she did sleep through 2 hours of it!

Amber’s baby sister Heidi arrived in November and she loves her to bits – though she is still to young to understand the concept of being gentle.

Amber has had 2 lots of tests and scans since her operation and we have just been told that she is in remission! Which is the news we have been waiting for! Though she still has tests and scans every 6 months, and won’t be in complete remission until another 5 years – but we are well on our way for our little girl to have a normal life – hopefully cancer free!

Looking back and a year on, we never thought that she would be were she is today, and neither did her doctors.

Written by Sarah ~~ Amber’s mum.