OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – 7-year-old Adalynn Isom is the type of kid that can easily spend all day running in her backyard, a spinning top of laughter and energy.
“She is super spunky, and super-bossy and wild,” says her parents, Ashley and Austin Isom from Yukon.
They don’t take Adalynn’s high spirits for granted.
It was back in August 2019 when a swollen lymph node went from an irritation to a full-blown emergency.
“They did x-rays, and they came back and said she had a pretty massive sized tumor in her chest” says Ashley. “They realized it was Stage 4, high risk neuroblastoma.”
Neuroblastoma is a cancer of the nervous system. It’s high risk and hard to beat.
Austin reflects, “It was a big journey, a really big journey. We had about two months in the hospital.”
But something unexpected happened when doctors at Jimmy Everest Cancer Center began chemotherapy before going in to surgically remove her tumor.
They never did have to operate because the tumor began shrinking, dramatically.
Ashley recalls, “After a couple rounds of chemo, her doctor came in and said ‘Congratulations guys’ because the tumor is almost gone. This doesn’t usually happen. She’s a little walking miracle.”
She wipes away a tear as she remembers what doctors did for Adalynn.
“I mean they saved Adalynn’s life. We owe them a lot, we really do.”
The Isom’s have many videos from the months in treatment, including moments Ady danced on her hospital bed.
In one video, one of her younger brothers races across the hospital parking lot to hug Adalynn, shouting “I love you!”
There were times they spent weeks apart due to treatment and at times only one parent could be with Adalynn due to COVID-19 precautions.
Ashley Isom says that love is “the reason she has a future and is living today.”
Adalynn is now cancer free. Cancer is not her only battle, but it has been the most significant.
Her dad, Austin says “her life has been hard. She has cerebral palsy, she’s had five eye surgeries, her Achilles lengthened. She’s a warrior.”
