A three-year-old girl with an aggressive cancer that was ‘eating away’ at her bone marrow showed just one symptom before her devastating diagnosis: a painless limp.
Tori Ziebell now wants to raise awareness about the rare symptom that was the only sign her daughter Lylah was seriously ill.
Lylah was a happy and seemingly healthy little girl before doctors revealed on June 27 that she was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Tori, 27, noticed her daughter had started limping and took her to Frankston Hospital in Melbourne’s south-east, where she had X-rays and blood tests.
The boy then had an MRI scan at Monash Children’s Hospital, where a doctor discovered a very small abnormality in his bone marrow.
After receiving more blood test results, Tori received the news no parent wants to hear: her son had leukemia.
“Lylah had no symptoms, she was just limping,” Ziebell told Daily Mail Australia.
‘She didn’t even complain of pain. (Doctors) said she would have been in pain walking with her limp, but we asked her every day, because we obviously thought it was painful, (and) she always said no.
Three-year-old Lylah Ziebell (pictured with her mother Tori) was a happy and seemingly healthy child before she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on June 27.
Lylah (pictured) began walking with a limp a few days before she was diagnosed with ALL.
“Her bone marrow was being eaten away and it was causing her to limp.”
Lylah has already had two rounds of chemotherapy, and while her limp has improved, she is feeling “a little dizzy and tired” this week.
For the next nine and a half months, she will receive chemotherapy on Fridays and routine checkups on Tuesdays until she goes into remission.
However, the cheerful girl has not complained even once since she was diagnosed with the disease.
“She’s a beautiful, happy little girl,” Ms. Ziebell said.
Lylah has an older brother who is 12, an older sister who is nine, and a younger brother.
Tori and her husband Shane, 35, sat the two older children down to explain that Lylah would remain in the hospital for the next nine months.
The couple takes turns spending time with Lylah at the hospital, which is about an hour from their home in Rosebud.
Doctors discovered a small abnormality in Lylah’s bone marrow after an MRI in late June.
The family of six is portrayed in happier times before Lylah’s diagnosis.
Lylah is pictured right with her father and younger brother after a round of chemotherapy.
The family also faces the prospect of having to move house, hopefully to a rental home halfway between the children’s school and the hospital.
“The house we are in is old and has asbestos,” he explained.
‘And it’s cold, there’s a breeze coming up through the floorboards. We’ve been looking but honestly we’ve spent a lot of money just this last week.
“We have to p‘We have to pay for parking at the hospital, gas, obviously the other kids, and we still have to pay rent and bills.’
Tori’s sister, Amy Ziebell, has started a GoFundMe for the family.
“Shane is self-employed and due to Lylah’s recent cancer diagnosis, he spends all of his time in the hospital with her and is currently unable to work during this difficult time in her life while she undergoes chemotherapy, radiation, blood infusions and the many surgeries she has already endured and will endure,” she wrote.
‘Any help would be greatly appreciated for this amazing young family and this little girl.’
