One year old Ida needs your help
The one-year-old Ida from Knowledge (district of Altenkirchen) has blood cancer. Only a suitable stem cell donor can save her young life. Anyone who wants to help can get in touch with www.dkms.de/ida order a registration set home and maybe become a lifesaver.
(UPDATE 02/21/2022: A donor was found! 😍)
Ida is a cheerful little girl. A real whirlwind. She likes other people, doesn’t strangers, loves her two grandmothers and grandfathers more than anything. There she can romp through the garden with Henri the dog. But her greatest passion is dancing. As soon as she hears music somewhere, her body starts to move. As if he couldn’t help it. Ida and rhythm belong together. She is the pride of her parents Alena and Julian. Ida is an all-round happy child and actually everything could be fine. But that’s not it.
The pediatrician initially thought it was an infection
At the beginning of October Ida has an infection. Nothing to worry about at first. But then she becomes weaker and weaker, has a bloated stomach and tiny dots on her body. The pediatrician reassured the parents that it was a common infection. But all drugs are ineffective. Four weeks later, the little girl is so apathetic that her parents go to the emergency room. The doctor on duty noticed immediately that it was serious, took the little one to the hospital and ordered a blood test. Only a short time later, the devastating diagnosis: Ida is most likely suffering from blood cancer.
“Alena called me, could hardly speak from sheer tears. ‘It’s really bad,’ she said over and over again. When the doctor told me on the phone that my daughter was very likely to have leukemia, I was empty. Your old world is gone from now on. Everything stands still. Anger and sadness, fear and bewilderment mix. You are completely overwhelmed. The shock hardly allows a clear thought,” remembers Julian.
Sad certainty and treatment in Cologne University Hospital
The parents and Ida are immediately taken to the Cologne University Hospital in an ambulance that night. A bone marrow puncture confirms the suspicion: Ida has blood cancer! Chemotherapy is started immediately. In the meantime she has survived the second chemoblock. “The side effects were horrific. Ida had extreme water retention, high fever, diarrhea, vomiting and severe pain. As a parent, you can hardly stand it,” says Mama Alena. In December she was then on a chemopause before the third block was supposed to start in early January.
Currently, the parents take turns at night every two days. During the day they can both be with Ida. Her life in knowledge has come to a standstill since her daughter fell ill. Julian and Alena live in Cologne in the parental home of the association for children with cancer, which is affiliated with the university clinic. Days alternate between confidence and doubt. There are days when giving up is not an option, but there are also hours when fear of what is to come takes over. “When you suddenly find yourself in a situation like that, you realize how good you had it. Only now can I really appreciate our old life. When I think about what used to upset me sometimes – today I can only laugh about it. The priorities are totally shifting,” explains Julian.
Ida is officially considered a high-risk patient
The parents experienced an unexpected solidarity. That helps them a lot during this difficult time. They still need all their strength, because it is now clear that Ida has been classified as a high-risk patient and needs a stem cell transplant to survive. “The real challenge is still ahead of us. Provided Ida finds a suitable donor, she will have to isolate herself with only one parent for six weeks. One of us has to stay outside. This is terrible for Ida, because she needs both of us, but also for us. Especially when you don’t know whether the foreign stem cells will be accepted and how much Ida is struggling, it’s hard not to be able to share that. When things get tight at the moment, one of us goes outside to catch our breath and regain our strength. This is no longer possible during the separation during the long transplantation phase. Then we are on our own. But it doesn’t help: we have to go through it. And we want to do it,” both say.
Please register with the DKMS for Ida
Ida is a real little fighter. But she needs help. Because only a suitable stem cell donor can save your life. That’s why Julian and Alena are asking for support: “Please register. Not just for Ida. There are still so many seriously ill little patients waiting for help in the children’s oncology department. They all want to live. Like our little daughter Ida. Life without her is unimaginable. Please take part in this campaign and help us to make this wish come true.”
If you are healthy and between 17 and 55 years old, you can help and order the registration documents at home with just a few clicks via www.dkms.de/ida. Registration is quick and easy.
It is particularly important that the cotton swabs are returned promptly after the cheek swab has been taken. Only when the tissue characteristics have been determined in the laboratory are donors available for the worldwide search.
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