Anni was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, an extremely rare pediatric cancer, in 2024, just before she turned 17. Over the course of about a week, Anni went from being a seemingly normal teenager to extreme pain and being unable to walk in the course of a week. We took her to the ER, where doctors discovered a tumor had been growing around her lower spine, compressing her nerves, causing extreme pain, numbness, and paraplegia. She was LifeFlighted to Spokane, where she had surgery that removed about three-quarters of the tumor. Thankfully this surgery was performed quickly enough that after about a week of physical therapy, she was able to walk again. Over the next 11 months, she received chemotherapy and radiation to address the remainder of the primary tumor that the surgeons could not get to, as well as several metastasis. Chemo and radiation seemingly did their job, and in August of 2025 she was put on 6 months of maintenance chemo. In early February, it seemed treatment had been effective, and maintenance was concluded.
Unfortunately, her remission was short-lived. By mid-May 2026, scans revealed new metastases to bone. She graduated high school with honors at the end of May, and was faced with the difficult decision, now as a young adult, whether to begin an even more grueling chemotherapy regimen with only a 30% chance of disease response, or to try other experimental therapies. She opted for a targeted cancer drug that we were told was generally well tolerated and had very good reviews. Sadly, this drug was a death sentence for Anni. She took it for just short of one month, during July. By early August, she was very sick with nausea and vomiting, but she thought it was a stomach flu. By mid-August, she was back in the hospital with an acute kidney injury, severe dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and thrombocytopenia. Since August, she has been receiving transfusions of platelets and blood every week. She spent most of the summer and fall unable to keep any food or medications down. During this time, the cancer, now in her bone marrow, exploded. She has been repeatedly in and out of the hospital, most recently having fluid drained from around her heart and lungs and a chest tube put in. Genetic blood testing revealed the targeted cancer drug did absolutely nothing to improve her cancer, and her platelets and neutrophils never recovered. Because she had next to no neutrophils, chemotherapy was no longer an option. She is now under hospice care at home, expected to cross over to be with her Heavenly Father Jesus Christ, in a matter of hours or days.
This GiveSendGo seeks to raise funds for her impending memorial service and burial.
