Wichita family finally gets to bring baby daughter home amid cancer treatment

A Wichita infant born with a rare blood cancer was released last week from the Kansas City, Mo., hospital where she has spent all but the first few hours of her life.

On Thursday evening, a flurry of family members greeted the round-cheeked baby with chants of “Welcome home, Eevie Elouise” when her parents, Ryan and Brynne Mulloy, pulled into their driveway. A caravan of vehicles emblazoned with messages like “Honk for Remission!” and “Eevie’s coming home!” followed the couple to Wichita from Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Energetic after a three-hour trip, the family – now whole with 6-month-old Eevie home – paused on the porch and grinned for photos.

They pulled over just once on the Kansas Turnpike when Eevie needed a diaper change. Disney tunes kept her content in the car.

“We finally made it,” Brynne Mulloy announced during the homecoming celebration.

She turned to her daughter, on whose feet sparkled a set of ruby-red slippers. “There’s no place like home, Kansas girl.”

Ryan Mulloy’s voice was thick with relief. “We weren’t certain that we were going to (make it).”

For the past six months, Eevie Elouise Mulloy has been undergoing in-patient treatment for a rare form of childhood blood cancer: congenital acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The disease, undetectable in utero and diagnosed shortly after birth, affects 1 in 5 million newborns. The survival rate is grim: About 20 percent of patients reach age 2.

Since Eevie’s diagnosis shortly after her Nov. 10 birth at Via Christi Hospital St. Joseph in Wichita, neither mom nor baby has been home.

“I had just given birth, and then all of the sudden we were on the cancer floor,” Brynne said. Doctors immediately flew the pair to Kansas City for treatment.

Ryan arrived later at the hospital, but eventually he returned home for his work as a Wichita police officer. Until their release, he visited his wife and daughter four nights each week.

The house in Wichita “was just a place to sleep and try and distract yourself,” Ryan said.

He gazed at Eevie with tearful eyes. “Finally. My family is here.”

For Eevie, the treatment road has been paved with both successes and setbacks. She has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy so far. More is coming up. Brynne called Eevie’s most recent round “the big bang,” because, she said, it was “three major groupings of chemo all in one.”

In addition to chemotherapy and its nauseating side effects, Eevie has been plagued with numerous secondary bladder, IV line and staph infections, her parents said. She has been in and out of intensive care. Recently, the baby stopped breathing twice in one day.

“I just started screaming,” Brynne said. “There’s nothing like watching her ... (oxygen) numbers drop.”

Once, early on, the Mulloys said, they were planning a funeral for their daughter after medical staff members apparently misread test results and issued an even more hopeless prognosis for recovery.

“Our lives just stopped right there,” Ryan said, recalling his fear. “Then they came back and said she is in remission – that they are just not used to looking at” blood cells in a patient with Eevie’s type of cancer.

When Brynne heard the news, she said, “I dropped and started sobbing in Ryan’s lap.”

For now, doctors tell the Mulloys, their daughter’s cancer is in remission. That means there are no detectable cancer cells in Eevie’s body. But she is not disease-free.

“If she survives to 2, then she’s considered cancer-free,” Brynne said. While she’s at home, Eevie receives five medications, chemo drugs and a steroid that makes her cheeks swell.

The baby is due back at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City weekly until she turns 1. She’ll also receive four lengthier in-patient chemotherapy regimens over the next six months. After her birthdays, the visits will be cut back to once a month.

“As far as we know, she’s the only one in America with it (congenital ALL) right now,” Brynne said. “We still have a lot ahead.”

Despite the challenges, the couple said they are thankful for each day with Eevie.

On Thursday, excitement mounted when the family crossed the threshold of their home and navigated a hallway leading to the pink nursery that Ryan painted last summer.

The couple let the girl feel the carpeted floor with her toes. She fussed at the new sensation.

They placed her in the crib that had sat bare. She whimpered a few more times.

The Mulloys said that soon they’ll venture out to dinner or to the zoo. Maybe.

“It’s definitely a day-by-day, and (we’ll) just try to be as normal possible but still realistic,” Brynne said.

She glanced at her daughter.

“I’m just going to try to be in the present, because I don’t want to miss it by crying that she may not be here in the next year.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2014 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Wichita family finally gets to bring baby daughter home amid cancer treatment."