2020 Little Warrior: Cloe Crayford
“Cloe was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma on December 26th 2019. The week before, we were at urgent care for a quick pneumonia check where an x-ray showed a large mass in her chest and we were immediately sent to Children’s Hospital where we spent the majority of her Winter Break. The doctors believe this was caught extremely early as it is a fast-growing cancer and thankfully Cloe wasn’t experiencing any major side effects from the pressure on her heart and airway.
She had a biopsy done, portacath placed, started chemotheropy and steriods right away. We have been amazed by Cloe’s strength throughout her entire journey. She has had some struggles which is to be expected but continues to stay positive. Steriods have been the hardest on her, making it hard to walk, leaving her emotionless and causing many leg and back pains. She’s had stomach pains and headaches but other than that she’s kept her head up and continues to take life day by day.
We’ve had more PET and CT scans than we would have liked due to the mass in her chest continuing to show color and in September’s scan it had also started changing shape which was cause for concern. We needed to determine if Cloe would be going to maintenance or needing a bone marrow transplant and the only way to do this was to get a true biopsy which would be hard based on the location of the mass under the sternum. On September 25th, 2020 Cloe was admitted for a Sternotomy and Thymectomey surgery to determine what was left in this mass and why it was showing color and changing shape.
After her surgery we waited a few days for the biopsy results to finally hear the amazing words that Cloe is cancer free, there was no evidence of disease!!!! We were so thankful to hear those words and know that she is one step closer to finishing this part of her journey. Her estimated end of maintenance treatment is May 2022!!
Cloe has been feeling great and continues to do the things she loves. She misses being in school face to face but is loving her distance learning class. Cloe and her siblings (Reese 6 and Caleb 4) have been busy explore outside, they spent as many days as they could swimming this Summer and have kept busy with their new Golden Doodle Callie. “
-Tara Crayford, Cloe’s Mother
During the month of November a portion of the proceeds from shopping INDY Gear and Apparel will go directly to Cloe and her family. Shop now and be sure to mention Cloe’s name in the comments section at checkout.