The more, the merrier!

Melody is now 15 years old. She is still being followed at the IWK Children's Hospital in Nova Scotia. Melody has been very strong through all this and we are very proud of her. Below is the original write up for Melody's story and the concept for this blog.



Melody is just 6 years old and has recently been diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis; a rare disease that only 1 to 3 children per million a year are diagnosed with. She is currently undergoing a great deal of testing at a children's hospital to determine the extent of the disease and how it will be treated. This disease comes with plenty of pain and limits Melody's ability to do a lot of the things children her age enjoy.



Seeing that this disease cannot be cured, only treated, Melody has a long road ahead of her. Her family would give anything to make this road a little brighter for their special girl. This is where you come in! We all know how exciting it is to get a handwritten letter or card in the mailbox, so we thought it would be fun for Melody to look forward to getting some mail of her own. She has a map of the world on her wall and puts a little sticker on every place she receives a letter from.







If you'd like to send along some sunshine, please send it to the following address:







Mail for Melody



57 Chaleur Drive



Belledune, NB



E8G 1Z3



Canada







Thank you so much for taking the time to participate. Your thoughtfulness is deeply appreciated! We will continue to update this blog with Melody's progress, so feel free to come back anytime.







How many letters has Melody received so far?


7/1/09

A Review of Melody's Past Couple of Weeks

Sorry it has taken so long to get some updates posted. Things have been a little crazy around here. I guess I should probably start off by telling you a little about everything Melody has gone through the past couple of weeks.
Melody was admitted at the Bathurst Hospital on June 1st, 2009. During her stay she had many blood tests, urine tests, ultra sounds, and x-rays. She was discharged on June3rd in order for us to take her to the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Melody was admitted on June 5th at the IWK. During her stay she had many tests and visits from specialists. It was hard for us to watch her go through all that. She was very scared and some tests were painful for her. We are thankful for ChildLife and Buddy the Clown to help her through it all. She was finally discharged on June 12th knowing we would be back in a couple of days for surgery. Melody had surgery on her leg June 15th at the IWK. They needed a biopsy of her leg muscle to be sure it was JDM and to see the extent of the damage it had already caused. We went back to the IWK on June23rd for the results and started her treatment the following day.

Melody is taking many different medications and the side effects from them are pretty scary. So far she has experienced a few of them... Headaches, weakness, always tired, swelling, and a few others.

My husband and I would like to point out one thing that we are very proud of. With all the pain, drastic change in diet, medications, and many restrictions in everyday life... Melody does not complain about any of it. She is so strong to deal with so much at her age. She is our tough cookie and we are very proud of her.
Posted by Mail for Melody

5 comments:

grammy said...

grammy's brave baby girl..we are so proud of you..i wish i could make it all go away for you..even when you are sick , you are the cutest.

July 1, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Sara said...

Those pictures are just heartbreaking. So much for one little girl to endure. We'll see you soon, Melody!

July 2, 2009 at 8:39 AM
Julie Allain said...

Bless her :(

I don't know if the card that I sent to Melody has arrived yet, I'm not sure how long it takes to get there from England

I will be sending a little present to Melody for being so brave xx

July 3, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Lynn Dumaresq said...

WOW! I have to say this is a great site that you have put up for your little angel. My heart goes out to Amy and Robby for being so strong for Melody. Having a daugther my self of the same age, I couldn't even imagine what you guys have to go through. I'm sure Melody realizes how much her parents are there for her and how strong you all are...
And to Melody: I haven't met you yet but I'm sure that the time will come. This past year I've heard many good story's about you from your Daddy as we went to college together. Keep your head up high little one and be brave! One day your rainbow will shine and everything will be fine. My little girl has sent you a card full of lovely colors, and we hope you love it! She wants to keep on sending some letters to you every so often, so you will hear from us again. Take care! From your soon to be friends, Lynn, Luc, Isabelle and Patrick xox

July 14, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Melissa Simone said...

Such a beautiful and brave little girl. Knowing that she has so much to overcome in the future my heart breaks for all of you but as her mom said "Melody does not complain about any of it"... she is an example of strength at such a young age!
God Bless You Melody,Amy,Rob & Spencer..and all her family and friends..

Melissa Simone (Harvey)

July 15, 2009 at 12:06 PM

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