Social - May 2003

Child wins early battle

Abi defeats disease by 1 and a half years old

By ALICE SMITH, LTN Staff Writer

Six-year-old Abigail Hoyle knows she had a “germ” when she was a baby.

She doesn’t remember many of the days in the hospital or her first chemotherapy treatment.

“She’s just now hearing people talk and ask about cancer and Relay (for Life) and just now really realizing the extent,” Abi’s grandmother, Becky Hoyle, said.

When Abi was 10-months-old, a Wednesday two weeks before Christmas of 1997, she was taken to the doctor because of an ear infection.

Abi’s family didn’t know that the routine check-up would be the beginning of the most difficult time in their lives.

“The pediatrician felt something on her stomach, and he didn’t quite know what it was,” Becky said. The doctor performed blood work and did an X-ray.

And then he made a call to Abi’s mother, Peggy.

He told her he had found a mass and that Abi needed to go to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, Becky said.

There, she was examined, and a surgeon was called in.

On that Friday, a tumor the size of a small grapefruit was removed from Abi’s adrenal gland.

It was so big, Becky said, that it had caused tumors on Abi’s liver.

She had been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a form of cancer that occurs in infants, children and, rarely, adults, according the Web site for the American Cancer Society.

“That was the most devastating thing I’ve ever been through,” Abi’s grandfather, Bob Hoyle, said.

It is one of the few cancers in children that secretes hormones which cause bizarre changes in the body such as opsoclonus (rotary movements of the eyes), myoclonus (spastic jerks of the muscles), and diarrhea, the Web site states.

Neuroblastoma is the third most common type of cancer in children. The disease affects one out of every 80,000 to 100,000 children under the age of 15.

Abi stayed in the hospital for seven days.

On Dec. 22, she had her first chemotherapy treatment.

Her family thought Abi would have to stay in the hospital during Christmas, but on Christmas Eve, she came home.

After trips back and forth to Baptist for treatment and a few scares, Abi was declared cancer free in June of 1998, when she was 1 and half years old.

Through it all, Abi was an inspiration to her family, they said.

After chemo, she would be exhausted.

“She would get up and just toddle around, and then fall down,” Becky said. “But she never whined, she never cried. It was amazing.

“She didn’t stress nearly as much as the adults.”

In Becky and Bob’s house, pictures of their grandchildren cover the walls and sit on tables and shelves.

Becky reached behind a few pictures displayed near the television and pulled out an 8 by 10 inch photo of Abi that was taken during her chemo. It showed Abi with no hair, smiling.

“This is the picture that brings you back to where you should be,” Becky said. “It keeps the whole family in place.”

Abi, a kindergartner at Union Elementary School,   now goes to the hospital once a year.

Her family was worried that the chemo would slow her growth and learning, but there have been no side effects, Becky said.

They take delights in the simple things.

“When she got up in our church and sang by herself, I thought I was going to explode,” Becky said. “Just seeing her do what other kids might take for granted …”

Abi loves running, the outdoors and “anything her daddy’s doing,” Becky said.

Abi and her family will participate in tonight’s Relay for Life as a team. They take comfort in the outpouring of love and support shown during the event.

“It’s just inspirational to go to see …,” Becky said. “We’re so grateful to all the people who donated (money) and walk for Relay for Life.”

Every dollar that someone raises, doctors and researchers come that much closer to helping a patient and finding a cure.

And for the Hoyles, without those dollars, without that research, they may not have seen their first granddaughter grow up.

“There’s nothing in this world that makes me any prouder than when that little girl calls me Maw Maw,” Becky said.

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Abi is the daughter of Rodney and Peggy Hoyle. They live in western Lincoln County near Abi’s grandparents, Bob and Becky.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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