Sixteen-year-old Haidyn Ulrich is many things. She’s an avid Iowa Hawkeyes fan, a performer, a top student, an aspiring nurse, and a survivor of pediatric cancer.

Haidyn had been healthy until she was 7, when she experienced neck pain and began sleeping for 22 hours at a time. Numerous tests finally led to a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia – a cancer of the blood and bone marrow – and she began treatment at University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

“She was rarely ever sick,” Haidyn’s mother, Brianne, remembers. “We never had to take her to the doctor.”

When she was 7, Haidyn told her parents after attending a bowling party that her neck hurt, so they thought she might have pulled a muscle. After a trip to the doctor’s office, she was given pain medication, but the pain continued.

Because she was running a fever, Brianne and her husband, Nicklaus, kept her home from school, and Haidyn began sleeping for 22 hours or more at a time, heightening their concerns.

She also was losing weight, and despite visits to their local doctor, they were not getting any answers that pinpointed the cause of her health issues. Brianne recalls reaching a point during an appointment where she sat on the floor and thought, “I’m not leaving until we find out what’s wrong with her.”

Haidyn eventually was seen by a nurse practitioner who worked with someone at University of Iowa Health Care, where she sent Haidyn’s tests. That proved to be a blessing to help determine the issue, Brianne says.

“They put her on an IV and they said her blood cells were spouting out potassium. That’s when the nurse came in and said, ‘This is presenting as cancer. We’re sending you to the university,’” she remembers. “It was an answer. Not the answer we wanted, but it was an answer.”

Keeping Haidyn’s spirits up

Haidyn was taken by ambulance to Stead Family Children’s Hospital, where the family was met by her care team of doctors, nurses, and therapists as they arrived late that night. They were told Haidyn had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, considered the most common childhood cancer, and given details about the recommended treatment. 

“They were very thorough with telling us all we needed to know about Haidyn’s diagnosis,” Brianne recalls, noting that she and her husband were given the choice to tell Haidyn or have the care team let her know. “Haidyn was just 7, so we waited until the morning to explain. We woke her up and sat her down and explained everything that was going on.”

A port was inserted that day and Haidyn began chemotherapy shortly after, taking the medication at home by mouth every day and twice weekly at the hospital via her port for more than two years.

Haidyn was in isolation in the hospital and at home for a time, after which she returned to school. She regularly returned to Stead Family Children’s Hospital for the chemotherapy, along with spinal taps, pulmonary breathing treatments – as the chemotherapy drugs affected her lungs – and cardiology treatment for her heart, “as all the meds she was on were wreaking havoc on her heart,” Brianne says, adding that they also went to the hospital multiple other times for platelets and when her temperature spiked.

During that time, Haidyn started playing piano and kept up her spirits by getting to know her nurses and other care team members well, Brianne remembers.

“She got to know everyone at the hospital,” Brianne says, recalling that Haidyn asked to schedule an appointment on her birthday so she could treat everyone at the hospital to cupcakes.

Before Haidyn’s diagnosis, Brianne’s mother came to live with the family after being diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. Seeing her grandmother make it through cancer treatments and lose her hair may have helped Haidyn when she experienced the same, Brianne says.

“She learned that being sick is OK,” she says.

Haidyn was able to end chemotherapy in April 2018 and has surpassed six years of being cancer-free.