PEA RIDGE — Seven-year old Alicia is missing her front teeth, like most second graders. But unlike most secondgraders, she is also missing her originally straight long hair and in its place curls are growing.
“Chemo curl,” her mom, Heather Bowker, said.
“Last year, at the end of February, we found out. I was doing her hair and I realized she had a lump on her neck,” Bowker said.
Alicia, at age 6, battled for her life against Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
So far, she has won.
Bowker said she took her daughter in to see the family’s doctor as soon as she could after finding the lump. Alicia was put on a antibiotic and told to come back if it didn’t go away. It didn’t.
The family was then referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist, who in turn referred them to another doctor who wanted the lump removed and biopsied. After removing the lump that was actually double the size they first thought it was, tests results confirmed the “C” word - cancer.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system, part of the immune system. In Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cells in the lymphatic system grow abnormally and may spread beyond the lymphatic system, according to the Mayo Clinic. As Hodgkin’s lymphoma progresses, it compromises the body’s ability to fight infection.
Six-year old Alicia began chemotherapy treatments when her cancer had yet to progress beyond stage one, luckily. She was scheduled for three treatments, one every three weeks. She did not attend school during this time, as her immune system was extremely weak.
Alicia didn’t know what it meant to have cancer.
“I got a doll and I got to see how it feels to put a port in,” she said. “I put the numbing cream on Otis.”
Otis is the name Alicia gave her port, common practice at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The port is a device under the skin that accesses a main vein, making needles easier on everyone, especially a child.
Alicia began to lose her hair and lost her appetite.
“We had to shave (my hair) cause it kept on falling in my food! I couldn’t eat my food!” Alicia said.
Doctors ran tests once more after completion of the three treatments and did not like what they saw.
“So she went for radiation at Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (CARTI),” said Bowker. “We stayed in a hotel for three weeks. She went in everyday (for 15-minute treatments) for three weeks. I couldn’t go back there with her, she was pinned down so she couldn’t move.”
Alicia’s grandma Judy came for treatments too, often providing the only comfort a scared little girl.
July 2009 brought some much needed good news.
“We went back up there (to Arkansas Children’s Hospital) a month later to get another scan.
It came back that she was in remission,” Bowker said. “It was a bumpy road.”
For the next two years, Alicia will get tested every three months to see that she is still cancer free. The doctors told her there is a 97 percent chance she will never face this battle again.
Last November, Alicia and her family took a trip to Disney World through the Make a Wish foundation.
“(Alicia having cancer) brought us closer as a family. My mother in-law was there the whole time for me. If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t have made it though it all,” Bowker said.
“I have been more cautious with all my kids, especially my baby. You never know what’s going to happen to your family,” she said.
Alicia is the daughter of Wayne and Heather Bowker of Pea Ridge, and the granddaughter of Judy Rogers, of Rogers. She has two sisters, Jordan, 10, and Kaylee, 1.
News, Pages 1 on 02/03/2010