Prayers for Darby Needed

From Lindsey (Darby's mom)

The biopsy results were not what we hoped. The first two tests were negative for leukemia, but the third test still detected leukemia. Darby's doctors say this means that she is not in molecular remission and that her disease is very likely to relapse into her marrow and blood again. Because of her age and the large amount of chemotherapy she has already undergone, the doctors don't know what the next step should be. They want to consult with the worldwide children's oncology group and come up with a plan. They do not believe that maintanance therapy will be enough, but for now, they have started Darby on the maintanance therapy drugs. It seems likely that some combination of arsenic treatment, more chemo, and a bone marrow transplant is likely. We don't know when we will know what is next. It may be a month or more. I can't say we understand why this has happened and we are scared about what is to come. We have a lot of thinking and praying to do about what our family's next steps will be. With Darby's doctors at something of a loss, Tyler and I feel that we may have to make some decisions about Darby's treatment knowing that her medical team cannot reach an accord. We are shocked at the outcome of this test. She looks so good that we never really believed that the treatment hadn't completely killed the cancer. We'll let you know when we know more.

Darby in the News

Thank you Tyler for writing a beautiful story about the Farnsworth Family. Click HERE to read.

Video of Darby

Darby's Story

On April 5th, 2010 Darby was diagnosed with APL leukemia. She was 13 months old at the time. She is the youngest person to be diagnosed with this rare type of leukemia. As soon as she was diagnosed, Darby underwent surgery to place a central line in her chest and began chemotherapy. Her doctors have come up with a totally new protocol for her treatment since she is too young for the standard protocol. Right now, she is in the hospital for her fourth round of chemo. She has one more to go and, depending upon the results of her bone marrow biopsy, she may have to have a bone marrow transplant. Over the past several months, Darby has been so strong and brave. She has made friends with all of her oncology team and the nurses on the pediatric wing of Egleston hospital despite all of the needles and fevers and side effects of treatment. She always has a smile and wave for the people who come into our hospital room. Egleston has become our home away from home because each round of chemo brings with it a four to six week hospital stay. She continues to be an inspiration to everyone as she takes her medicine without complaint and learned to walk while undergoing a tough round of treatment. I think the hardest thing for Darby has been how much she misses her big brother, Preston. He is her favorite person, but unfortunately, he can't visit because of hospital age restrictions. While we wait for Darby's immune system to recover, she talks to her brother and her dad on the phone. We are looking forward to the day that Darby achieves a cure and our family can be together again.