Hi.  This is me, Eden, along with my brother Joseph Deley at Christmas time, 2003.  I was born on May 22, 2000.  I love dancing along to my Barbie Nutcracker DVD and would one day love to meet and have breakfast with Cinderella.

On January 13, 2004, I was diagnosed with high risk ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia).  It was an amazing life change for our family and I was scared to be in the hospital for that first week, but things have gotten much easier and now I am much more comfortable with my chemotherapy and procedures.  We know that vast improvements have been made in curing ALL cancer over the past few decades and the procedures are not as painful and are much easier to deal with.

Within two days of my week's stay, I received my atrial cathetor (CVC) which is a double line so they can give me more intensive treatment.  I am very grateful for this contraption as it not only enables them to give me my chemotherapy, but also allows them to take samples of my blood so that I don't need to be poked.  The first couple days before this was very hard as they gave me many pokes.  I don't miss those.

MY FIRST WEEK'S STAY

As I didn't enjoy taking my medication, the nurses had to put a nose tube in which went through to my stomach.  The nurses called that night world war III when they tried to get that in.  It took 5 people to do it.  I can put up a huge fight when I have to (which is a good quality to have when dealing with cancer).  I finally did get use to it though.