Within three weeks, Rowan commemorated one year since two important events in her life. First, she celebrated her first birthday on January 26. Second, she passed the one year anniversary of her cancer diagnosis on February 15.

Last year, just after Rowan’s birth, she had bruises all over her body. These were initially attributed to her traumatic birth, but instead of healing, the bruises worsened during Rowan’s first three weeks at home. Rowan did not seem to be sick, since she was eating and sleeping well. These behaviors were comforting to her parents but alarming to doctors.

Bruising in infants is often a signal that something is wrong. Bruising may be a sign of abuse, anemia, malnutrition, or cancer. In Rowan’s case, the bruises were due to cancer. At 20 days old, Rowan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). AML originates in the bone marrow where new blood cells are made. As the name suggests, AML is an acute condition and cancerous blood cells can rapidly disperse through the body and spread the disease. Consequently, AML requires aggressive treatment.

Rowan underwent five rounds of inpatient chemotherapy over nine months. For each round of chemotherapy, she was admitted to the hospital for 21-40 days to receive the drugs and allow her immune system to rebuild. This accumulated to 179 days spent in the hospital over nine months. Thankfully, her treatment was successful and she was able to go home cancer-free in October of 2018.

Three short months later, it was time to celebrate Rowan’s first birthday. The boutique bake shop Cocoa and Fig, in Minneapolis, made the cake for the party. Since Rowan had enjoyed a few zoo outings during her cancer treatment, her parents requested a zoo-themed cake. Like any one-year-old, Rowan was delighted by the cake and content to dig in! We hope to celebrate with Rowan again in nine months when she reaches one year cancer-free!

To read more about Rowan’s story, visit Rowan’s Caringbridge Page.
To learn more about Cocoa and Fig, visit their website.

With love and smiles,

Molly Sargen

Icing Smiles Blog Writer