Meet Kensley
Kensley Condra was diagnosed with Stage IV high risk Neuroblastoma when she was only 11 months old. She spent her first birthday stuck in the hospital without any visitors.
Her mom Taleeah says, "Kensley never really got sick, but then she did." She tested negative for everything at the doctor's office, then she spiked a fever and couldn’t breathe. She was taken to a children’s emergency room near her home in Rogersville, TN in the middle of the night, where she tested positive for Covid, Rhinovirus, and RSV. "They wanted to do a CT scan to make sure she didn’t have any fluid on her lungs because she was put on oxygen. Then they came back to tell us they found the mass. I had only packed one sleeper because I knew we’d stay the night, but I could’ve never in my life pictured that they would find that," says Taleeah.
Doctors wanted to send Kensley a larger specialty hospital as soon as possible, because the mass pushing against her lungs was so dangerous at the time. She was flown to Cincinnati Children's Hospital and started a half dose of chemotherapy in hopes that it would ease the pressure on her lung and allow her time to breathe and recover. It worked wonders, and she was over the sickness fast.
Looking back, Kensley's mom noticed that she also had trouble breathing before her diagnosis. "All my friends would tell me it looked like she had RSV, but the doctors told me it was nothing and that babies breathe like bubble guppies. They sent us home on breathing treatments every single time."
Kensley is not yet even two years old, but she has been through five and a half cycles of induction chemotherapy, surgery, and a stem cell transplant so far. She now has been diagnosed with Horner Syndrome from the tumor pressing on her nerves. Her right eye is squinted and her pupil doesn’t dilate, so they are different sizes now. Despite all that she's been through, Kensley remains a happy child. She enjoys playing with animals, jumping, and playing with baby dolls. She just recently learned to stand on her own!
"We met with Wendy (Ransom) in the hotel provided by Emily’s Power for a Cure. It felt like we knew her our whole life. She was super sweet. They have helped us so many times providing a hotel, as we live 4 hours away from the hospital." Taleeah, Kensley's Mom
