Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Uncommon symptom every parent needs to know after seemingly healthy little girl, three, was diagnosed with a life-changing medical condition

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A three-year-old girl with aggressive cancer ‘eating away’ at her bone marrow displayed only one symptom before her devastating diagnosis: a painless limp.

Tori Ziebell now wants to raise awareness of the uncommon symptom that was the only sign her daughter Lylah was seriously ill. 

Lylah was a happy and seemingly healthy toddler before doctors revealed on June 27 she was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). 

Tori, 27, noticed her daughter had started limping and took her to Frankston Hospital, in south-east Melbourne, where she had X-rays and blood tests. 

The toddler then had an MRI at Monash Children’s Hospital, where a doctor discovered a very small abnormality with her bone marrow. 

After more bloodwork results came back, Tori received the news no parent ever wants to hear: her toddler had leukemia. 

‘Lylah had no symptoms, just a limp,’ Ms Ziebell told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘She didn’t even complain about being in pain. [Doctors] said she would have been in pain walking with her limp – but we’d asked her every day, because we obviously thought it was painful, [and] she always said no.

Three-year-old Lylah Ziebell (pictured with her mum Tori) was a happy and seemingly healthy toddler before she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on June 27

Lylah (pictured) started walking with a limp just days before she was diagnosed with ALL

 Lylah (pictured) started walking with a limp just days before she was diagnosed with ALL

‘Her bone marrow was being eaten away and that was causing her to limp.’

Lylah has already had two rounds of chemotherapy and while her limp has improved, she is feeling ‘a bit nauseous and tired’ this week.

For the next nine-and-a-half months, she will have chemotherapy on Fridays and routine tests on Tuesdays until she enters remission.

However, the cheerful toddler hasn’t complained once since she was diagnosed.

‘She’s just a beautiful, happy little girl,’ Ms Ziebell said.

Lylah has an older brother, 12, an older sister, nine, and a younger brother.

Tori and her husband Shane, 35, sat the eldest two down to explain Lylah would be staying in hospital for the next nine months.

The couple is taking turns spending time with Lylah in hospital, which is an hour away from their home in Rosebud.

Doctors discovered a small abnormality in Lylah's bone marrow after an MRI in late June

Doctors discovered a small abnormality in Lylah’s bone marrow after an MRI in late June

The family-of-six is pictured during happier times before Lylah's diagnosis

The family-of-six is pictured during happier times before Lylah’s diagnosis

Lylah is pictured right with her dad and her younger brother after a round of chemotherapy

Lylah is pictured right with her dad and her younger brother after a round of chemotherapy

The family is also facing the prospect of having to move house – hopefully to a rental halfway between the children’s school and the hospital.

‘The house that we’re in is old and has asbestos in it,’ she explained.

‘And it’s cold, there’s a breeze coming up through the floorboards. We’ve been looking but we’ve honestly used up so much money just in this last week.

‘We’ve got to pay for parking at the hospital, the petrol, obviously the other kids, and we’ve still got to pay rent and bills.’

Tori’s sister Amy Ziebell has started a GoFundMe for the family. 

‘Shane is self-employed, and with Lylah’s recent cancer diagnosis he spends all his time at the hospital with Lylah and currently cannot work at this hard time in life while she is going through chemotherapy, radiation and blood infusions and many surgeries she has already and will endure,’ she wrote.

‘Any help would be muchly appreciated for this amazing young family and little girl.’

WHAT IS ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA (ALL)?

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. 

More than 300 people are diagnosed with ALL in Australia each year.

ALL is characterised by an overproduction of immature white blood cells, called lymphoblasts or leukaemic blasts. Because the bone marrow is unable to make adequate numbers of red cells, normal white cells and platelets, people with ALL become more susceptible to anaemia, recurrent infections, and to bruising and bleeding easily.

The blast cells can then spill out of the bone marrow into the bloodstream and accumulate in various organs including the lymph nodes (glands), spleen, liver and central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

Source: Leukaemia Foundation 

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