Bailey is a bright, confident, fun-loving Keaton’s Kiddo whose courage and positivity have inspired so many throughout her childhood cancer journey.
Behind her infectious smile is a story of tremendous strength, one that began with unexpected symptoms, a life-changing diagnosis, and a journey no child or family should have to face.
Through it all, Bailey has met each challenge with an incredible spirit, surrounded by the love and support of her family, friends, care team, school, and community.
In his own words, Bailey’s dad shares her journey, from the first signs that something wasn’t right through treatment, recovery, and the remarkable young girl Bailey is today.
Around Bailey’s 7th birthday, she stopped eating and began losing weight rapidly. Her lack of appetite was accompanied by stomach aches and occasional vomiting, so doctors were primarily focused on her digestive system. After three months of appointments, different specialists, and lots of tests, her medical team finally figured out why she wasn’t eating. Bailey had a brain tumor the size of a ping pong ball, which was pressing against her pituitary gland. Almost none of Bailey’s symptoms up to that point were classic brain tumor symptoms, so this came as a surprise to everyone. Luckily, her medical team moved quickly and Bailey had emergency surgery to remove the tumor the next day. Thankfully, Bailey’s surgeon was able to remove the tumor.
After surgery, Bailey spent almost two weeks in the hospital recovering. She had significant gross and fine motor skill deficiencies as a result of the surgery, which required physical and occupational therapy to get her to walk confidently again, as well as to be able to do things like get dressed, brush her teeth, and use a pencil again. The good thing was that right after her tumor was removed, her appetite returned. Prior to removing the tumor, Bailey had gone from 50 pounds down to just under 35 pounds.
Over the next month or so, Bailey’s physical deficiencies faded, and she was able to physically do most of the things she could do before, but she would get extremely tired quickly and needed to take a lot of naps. Her cognitive issues lingered, however, and she still had difficulty remembering things and processing quickly. The tumor also left her with hormone deficiencies, which require her to take pills multiple times per day. While she was recovering from surgery, it was determined that Bailey’s tumor was cancer – a mixed germ cell tumor. Luckily, the type of cancer she had was expected to respond very well to treatment.
Over the next few months, Bailey went through chemotherapy at her home hospital, which required hospital stays, but she was able to go home in between treatments. After she completed chemo, she got a short break in treatment before temporarily moving down to San Diego to undergo proton radiation, since San Diego was one of the few places in the United States that have the machines that could provide that type of precision radiation treatment. Both treatments were hard on Bailey’s body, but she shook off the side effects and always went into each treatment willingly, with admirable bravery and positivity. Today, she is in remission and is back to her normal activities. She still has her daily pill regimen, and likely will for the rest of her life. Her cognitive issues continue to improve with time and hard work, and her team believes that will continue as she moves farther from surgery and treatment.
What makes Bailey special:
Bailey has many qualities that helped her greatly as she fought her cancer. Initially, getting the news that she had cancer was very difficult because the year prior, she had watched her friend battle cancer bravely, but unfortunately, the treatments could not outpace the cancer and he passed away. The good thing was that he fought bravely, and so she knew what that looked like and did the same. She went into every test and treatment without hesitation and with an unbreakable spirit. She overcame her fear of getting pricked quickly, and by the time she had her first draw after surgery, all she asked for was a countdown and was good to go. She quickly learned how to take pills better than her mom. She powered through nausea from chemo and shook off throwing up like it was no big deal. When she lost her hair, she embraced it. She missed it, but she always focused on the convenience of having no hair and how comfortable it was in the summer. Plus, she has a lot of confidence and knew she looked good with or without hair! She had wigs, but only wore them if she felt like it, often ditching them after a while because it got uncomfortable. Even as her hair grew back, she decided to have fun with her hair and went to her brother’s barber to get some designs shaved in.
Bailey also has the ability to form bonds, which helped a lot. She was always polite and thankful to her care teams and loved to chit chat with them. It made her stays in the hospital a little more fun for everyone. The interactions and relationships she built with her care team made each appointment something to look forward to, instead of something she dreaded. She loves being silly and she loves playing games, which were great for herbecause she had people to entertain and play games with her, whenever she had visitors at the hospital.
Bailey was also fortunate to have a lot of support, from family, friends, and her community. She would not have been able to get through all that she did without all that support, and because of it, she always had visitors at the hospital. She was able to attend school whenever she was able, for as long as she was able, while she was going through treatment. When she couldn’t, her school made sure she stayed connected from afar. Friends and family were constantly there and showed up for her in a big way. She could not have made it through treatment and healed the way she has without all of this support. She recognizes this. After all she has been through, Bailey now will never pass up the opportunity to say thank you or share her gratitude towards others.
Bailey may be small, but we all look up to her.
Surrounded by Support Throughout the Journey
That community of support has been an important part of Bailey’s journey, and Keaton’s Child Cancer Alliance has been honored to be one part of it.
From diagnosis and treatment through recovery and survivorship, Keaton’s has surrounded Bailey and her family with emotional support, opportunities for joy and normalcy, and connections with others who understand the unique challenges of childhood cancer.
Following Bailey’s diagnosis, her family experienced an overwhelming amount of change in a very short period of time. After months of searching for answers, they suddenly faced emergency brain surgery, a lengthy hospitalization, a cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy, and eventually a temporary move to San Diego for proton radiation.
Through ongoing connection with their dedicated Keaton’s Family Navigator, Bailey’s parents and her brother, Cory, had another source of support as they navigated those changes, someone checking in, listening, encouraging them, and reminding them that they did not have to face the journey alone.
And throughout it all, cancer never took away who Bailey was. She remained silly, playful, confident, and incredibly positive.
Keaton’s helped create opportunities for Bailey and her family to step outside of the medical world and simply enjoy being together. Family events, special experiences, activities, and celebrations gave Bailey something fun to look forward to while also making sure Cory was included and supported. These moments gave the family opportunities to create memories centered not on cancer or treatment, but simply on being together.
Bailey was fortunate to have tremendous support from her family, friends, school, and community. Keaton’s did not replace that incredible support system; we joined it.
Through Keaton’s, Bailey and her family have also had opportunities to connect with other pediatric cancer families and people who understand what it means to navigate childhood cancer. And that connection does not end when treatment ends.
Today, as Bailey continues into survivorship, Keaton’s remains a community where her family can feel understood, celebrate milestones, create new memories, and even encourage other families beginning their own childhood cancer journeys.
We are incredibly grateful to be part of Bailey’s story and to continue cheering her on. Through diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and survivorship, our commitment remains the same: to surround Bailey, Cory, and their family with love, connection, and support, and remind them that they never have to navigate childhood cancer alone.
