When word spread that eight-year-old Kayla Genoble had cancer it didn’t take long for the community to come together. Bake sales, bike rides and car washes were organized to help raise money for the Genoble family. Prayers and wishful thoughts were sent their way.
Today Kayla will undergo a total femur replacement to remove the cancer in her bone.
Kayla’s doctor has brought in a special implant from England. They will remove her bone from the hip to the knee and replace it with an implant that has magnets in it. This implant will grow as Kayla’s body grows.
Michael Genoble, Kayla’s father, said they are at the halfway point in Kayla’s treatment.
“We go to the hospital Mondays through Thursdays for chemotherapy treatments,” he said. “Once she’s cleared from the hospital we’re able to come home for the weekend.”
Not long after finding the tumor in Kayla’s leg in March, doctors found eight lesions on her lungs. A recent scan showed all of the lesions were gone.
“The doctor was surprised that they were completely gone,” Genoble said. “I told them it’s because daddy prayed a lot.”
Genoble said faith has been a large part for his family in this process.
“I’ve always been religious but I would put Him on the back burner,” he said. “When this happened I put Him on the front burner and put it on boil. There is no one else to turn to and it’s awesome that I get to see my prayers get answered.”
After Kayla’s surgery today she will be able to come home four or five days later. Genoble said she would have four to eight weeks with a walker, then a cane. Physical therapy will play a big role in her recovery. She will have check-ups for the next five years to make sure everything is going well.
“It has been a long road so far but we’ve achieved our goals,” Genoble said. “I’m glad we got dealt the hand we did because there are other kids who don’t get it.”
The Genobles have met other families while they’ve been at the hospital.
“A lot of those families are from the Kansas City area and they don’t come from small towns,” he said. “It almost makes you feel bad that they don’t get the help that we’ve received.”
Genoble said the outpour of support from the community is “very humbling.”
