Freshman Charlie White supported his sister during her illness, and continues to do so throughout her life. “I don’t think there was ever any doubt in my mind that she would be OK,” Charlie said.
By MARY MERRITT – Features Writer
Inches of glass were all that separated the two small hands, pressed against the window that divided them. The girl looked down into the eyes of her little brother. He was so brave and she saw it, now more than ever, as he sat looking back at her.
Who would have known that, after all of the giant machines, with their big names and even bigger functions, her little brother would be the one to keep her alive?
Sophomore Florence White overcomes leukemia despite the odds against her. “Sometimes I think about (my illness) a lot, and sometimes I forget it ever happened,” Florence said.
“After the (bone marrow) transplant, they wouldn’t let me hug my brother. My immune system was in such a bad shape. We weren’t allowed to hold hands or touch each other. That was the worst part,” sophomore Florence White said.
Until Feb. 10, 2006, Florence lived a normal life.
“I think (my childhood) was pretty ordinary. Both of my parents are doctors, so they were always open to us about a lot of stuff, as far as science and that sort of thing goes,” Florence said. “We tried to get in a lot of physical activity. Mostly they tried to keep us healthy.”
However, not all sickness can be prevented, and in February of her third grade year, Florence’s previously ordinary childhood took a turn for the abnormal.
A few weeks before the diagnosis, Florence awoke in the middle of the night with a barking cough and difficulty breathing. When she awoke the next morning, the cough remained and she began feeling tired and exhausted during daily activities.
“My mother is a pediatrician, and she had actually had a patient with similar symptoms before who had leukemia,” Florence said. “Family friends told her she was being paranoid, but then the results came back.”
Later that February, Florence was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. At the time of diagnosis, Florence was too sick and exhausted for the news to sink in, but even when it did, at the age of nine she was not aware of what the diagnosis would entail.
“I knew what (my leukemia) was and what it did, but I didn’t realize that at the time at least 85 percent of kids with it died,” Florence said.
Sophomore Florence White, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age nine, watches her Athens United soccer teammates, who raised more than $5,000 to donate to the American cancer Society. White’s experience with illness has affected her career goals. “Sometimes I think I’d love to heal people, but I also never want to be around another doctor ever again,” White said.
Florence’s parents however, knew the conditions of her disease were much more dire.
“It hit us like a ton of bricks, because unlike a lot of people who might get a result and know that something’s not quite right, we really knew what we were getting into. I think we both thought that Florence was going to die,” Florence’s father Dr. Richard White said. “We pretty much crawled into our own little shells, had some discussions about it, and we just decided OK, its time to go to war and start fighting this (disease) as best as we can.”
With such an aggressive cancer, treatment was not easy for Florence.
“I got a lot of different medicines at that time because chemotherapy has a lot of different side effects, like vomiting and that kind of thing,” Florence said. “They help to keep it under control. (There were) a lot of blood transfusions and extra fluids.”
Florence underwent four rounds of chemotherapy. Each round was given over the course of three months. The doctors let her go home for a week in between treatments, and although the time was short, it was spent with her friends and family. Her brother Charlie especially treasured her visits.
“I remember this one time where she actually took a break and got to come home. It was a snow day, and she would have gone back but the roads were closed, so she got to stay with us for a couple of extra days,” Charlie said. “Snow is especially rare in Georgia, so I thought that was really special, Florence coming down and getting a huge snow day, kind of a like a welcome home.”
Some days were better than others, but the treatment had many side effects.
“The (side effect) you always hear about is hair falling out, and of course at first I was devastated over my terrible loss, but I got over it pretty quickly. And the vomiting, it was just constant. They have medicine that makes it better, but it doesn’t go away,” Florence said. “The one nobody ever talks about though are these mouth sores, they’re the worst. It hurts to just talk. You also lose your appetite; it’s just gone. You’re never hungry. Because of this I lost a lot of weight, but they’re giving you so much extra fluid you still look kind of puffy.”
Despite the side effects, Florence never let the treatments get her down.
“(Having cancer) made me grow up faster later on, but when I was in the hospital and I wasn’t feeling really sick, I was just goofy,” Florence said. “ I remember a lot of the good times I had there.”
On a good day, Florence would be up roaming the ward, or making a nurse name-tag. Even when she was on bed-rest Florence kept her sense of humor about her, cracking jokes and always bringing a smile to the faces of those near. It also helped that Florence had an abundance of visitors.
“Luckily, we were very, very comfortable being in hospitals, so when we moved in, we really moved in,” Richard said. “We would have folks visit and have slumber parties in the hospital. We tried to maintain this family type of thing, but it was pretty discombobulated, so we just fell into that routine, and it became normal.”
Florence’s family was tested for bone marrow matches, and her brother was a match. The treatment spanned over the time of about six months, and the recovery period lasted almost another six months.
For the first couple of weeks, Florence attended the classes available at the hospital for in-patients, but at some point she started feeling too sick because of the treatment. Florence ended up not attending school at all for nearly a year.
“What I ended up doing was repeating the fourth grade. A lot of my friends were younger than me actually, so it was helpful because then I got to be in the same grade as all of my friends,” Florence said.
After treatment, Florence transferred to David C. Barrow Elementary School. The move was beneficial because it gave her the opportunity to start anew. Because she switched schools, only a handful of kids knew about her illness.
“I didn’t really talk about it that much, but my hair was still really short at the time. If someone asked, I would talk about it,” Florence said.
Luckily there were ways of updating her friends and family that were easy and efficient. Florence’s parents created a blog dedicated to her condition and the condition of her family throughout the duration of her illness.
“(The blog) kind of takes care of people constantly e-mailing and asking ‘are you OK?’ and wanting details; so you put it out there for everyone,” Florence said. “My dad mostly took care of that. Apparently he’s a very emotional writer and made people cry. He still writes in it occasionally whenever I go to get an MRI or something.”
While the blog was largely kept by Florence’s mother, her father contributed.
“I’ve always enjoyed writing, so I would when I was inspired, go and write something on there for general consumption,” Richard said. “I found it to be a very good way for me to let people get inside my shell, because I’m a pretty closed person otherwise. It gave me a venue to express myself without feeling too vulnerable.”
There were many new resources that the White family was introduced to by different childhood cancer groups, in addition to the blog site.
“We were obviously very aware of childhood cancer, but it was very peripheral in our existence. Everyone has their little causes here and there, but it gave us at least temporarily an outlet that we could give support to, that was very personal to us, and it availed us to meet some very, very great people we would not otherwise have met. People who became comrades in arms with us,” Richard said.
Florence’s cancer is something that happened in her past, but it has palpably influenced who she is today, and where she sees herself down the road.
“Sometimes I think I’d love to heal people, but I also never want to be around another doctor ever again,” Florence said. “I have thought about doing counseling or something like that. The child life specialists at the hospital basically just talk to kids and play games to help explain to them what’s happening and how the treatment’s going to work. I would like that.”
For Florence, the experience of having cancer is something that has had a permanent affect on her life. It does not define who she is, but it is a part of her story, and it has left her with a better understanding of the world around her.
The same can be said for her loved ones. Florence’s parents described their feelings on Florence’s Caringbridge site.
“Reality changes. It is no longer about planning for your future, your family’s future,” Florence said. “It is no longer about living or dying. It is about trying to be the best you can be, do the best you can do. It is about showing love without holding back. It is about getting to the heart of the matter, and living today.”
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