When Justin Kendrick took his daughter Kylie to a Texas Health Breeze Urgent Care center on May 3, he believed her stomach ache was likely caused by constipation. He never imagined what the Kendrick family would soon find out to be true: their 7-year-old daughter was in the early stages of childhood leukemia.

Kylie, a Girl Scout who loves riding horses and playing basketball, had visited the school nurse three times prior to her visit at Breeze: once for a headache—which her mother attributed as an attempt to skip P.E.—another time for a stomach ache and once more to grab a mint for her sore throat.

“I was kind of fed up with the calls from the nurse, because there’s not much the nurse can do,” Kylie’s mother Christy Kendrick said. “I was like, ‘Well, if she thinks she’s sick, she’s gonna go to urgent care.’”

The Kendricks chose to make Kylie an appointment online at Breeze due to successful past visits and the quick, convenient nature of the center. With the goal of having patients in-and-out in about 30 minutes and the ease of being able to receive prescription drugs on-site, Breeze was the best option for getting home in time for dinner—or so they thought.

At the Breeze Fort Worth location on Golden Triangle Boulevard, Kylie was assessed by nurse practitioner Breann Jarvis who said cancer was the last thing on her mind. Kylie looked healthy and her vitals were stable, but Jarvis said she still had an uneasy feeling—especially when she felt Kylie’s belly.

“I was going through my exam, and when I got to her abdominal exam, my gut feeling was that something’s not right,” Jarvis said. “I really wanted her to go get imaging to find out what it was. We talked about appendicitis, maybe bowel blockage.”

Jarvis told Justin to take Kylie to Cook Children’s Medical Center to find the cause of her hardened stomach. After five hours of waiting, a negative mono test and an abdominal ultrasound, Kylie was admitted onto the oncology floor for an enlarged spleen, an enlarged liver and low blood work counts.

“They couldn’t tell if she had leukemia initially because it wasn’t in her blood,” Christy said. “Most people, by the time they catch leukemia, it’s so far progressed that it’s in your blood, it’s in your spinal fluid, it’s in your marrow—it’s everywhere. It wasn’t in her blood, so they had to do a bone marrow biopsy the next day to confirm that it was leukemia.”

Though the news is every parent’s worst nightmare, The Kendricks felt immense gratitude that the cancer was identified early, giving their daughter a real chance to fight it and win. Now three months into the battle, Christy said Kylie probably has two and a half more years of treatment to ensure she remains cancer free once she reaches remission—which they are hoping happens later this summer.

“We have a very long journey ahead, and we’re very encouraged by our faith and know that God is going to be with us through this journey,” Christy said. “We will not let it define her and be the only thing people see when they see her. She is more than just a kid who has cancer. She’s Kylie.”

After Kylie’s diagnosis, The Kendricks reached out to Jarvis to thank her for being adamant about the need for imaging and not dismissing Kylie’s pain as just another stomach ache or constipation.

“Very easily, someone could have just gone along with what we had said: she suffers from constipation,” Christy said. “...But they didn’t. They did a thorough exam and they thought something else was wrong instead of just brushing it to the side.”

Jarvis’ dedication to individualized and thorough care was life-saving in this instance, but she said the staff at Breeze is like-minded and committed to treating each and every patient like they are a part of their own family.

“It’s such a blessing that [Kylie] came here and I was able to see her,” Jarvis said. “[The family] is like, ‘You’re our hero,’ and I don’t feel like a hero. I feel like I’m in this profession for a reason ... and [I’m satisfied] knowing that she got the care she needed, she came to us and we treated her with kindness.”

While it is not everyday that a stomach ache is an early sign of cancer, The Kendricks are thankful they ended up at Breeze that day, and stressed that the outcome may have been different at another health care center.

“[Texas Health Breeze Urgent Care] probably saved my kid’s life,” Justin said. “If they hadn’t caught it early, the doctor said we would have gone six more weeks [without diagnosis] and would be having different conversations.”

Right now, Texas Health Breeze Urgent Care has 18 locations throughout North Texas, and has plans to continue expanding. Breeze Urgent Care is open from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. 365 days a year. Patients are encouraged to make a reservation online that fits their schedule—or walk-ins are always welcome.

To learn more about Texas Health Breeze Urgent Care, including locations near you, pricing and insurance information, as well as what they treat, visit breezeurgentcare.texashealth.org. Follow along with Kylie’s journey on the Kendrick family’s Facebook page, Buckin’ Leukemia with Kylie.

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