NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — There were huge smiles Friday evening in North Fulton County for a young girl battling a rare form of leukemia and her family.
Mary Elizabeth Paris returned to see the new bedroom she shares with her sister Sunday.
The nonprofit Sunshine On a Ranney Day gave the special girls and their brother a huge reason to smile after some very difficult months.
Paris was a healthy, happy and active 11-year-old in the spring of 2014. She started to complain of stomach aches, headaches and had some strange bruising on her shins. She and her family visited the pediatrician before going out of town for spring break and they were assured that it was just allergies. Otherwise, she seemed perfectly healthy. However, while at the beach she was overly exhausted and was not as happy and spirited as usual.
Her family took her home to get more testing, as they knew something was wrong. When the results came back, they got a call that would change their lives forever.
Paris was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, the most rare and aggressive form of leukemia.
Soon after the diagnosis, her family learned that the cancer was too aggressive for chemo alone and she would also have to have a bone marrow transplant.
Her brother was a perfect match and was more than happy to be his sister’s hero. Although the bone marrow transplant was painful and scary, it went perfectly and the prognosis was looking good. However, four weeks after her transplant, she developed severe graft-versus-host disease of the gut and ended up back in the hospital. This caused her unbearable continuous pain that persisted. At her six-week checkup they found that the cancer had relapsed. Her family sought medical intervention from specialists at St. Jude’s.
Since then, she has had to participate in very aggressive chemotherapy that caused severe burns over 90 percent of her body. Throughout the painful and wrenching treatment, Paris stayed strong and brave and the chemotherapy was successful. She was back in remission. At a checkup, they learned she had developed a choloroma (a leukemia tumor) on her spine. This tumor brought her additional pain and threatened to cause permanent paralysis. The chemotherapy treatments worked to shrink the tumor.
Following this stretch of intervention, Paris required a second bone marrow transplant and her father was a match. Complications of the second transplant included a severe fungal infection, two instances of pulmonary hemorrhage, intubation and a medically induced coma. The family was fearful that she may not pull through, but she overcame again.
Paris made a special trip back home from St. Jude's to see her new bedroom. You can continue to follow her journey on Facebook, by liking Prayers for Mary Elizabeth.