MUNCIE, Ind. – If Belle Brown gets hit in the head, her brain could start bleeding. If she falls at just the right angle, or gets knocked just so by an elbow…
If Belle Brown hits her head, she could die.
None of this is fair for the Delta junior. She was a multi-sport athlete in fifth grade, and excelled at all of them. Volleyball was her love. She was trying out for a Munciana travel team when everything changed.
Her passions changed. Her perspective changed. Now, she wants to be one of the best golfers in Indiana. And she’s determined to make that happen.
“If I set a goal for myself, I know at the end of the day that I’m gonna achieve that goal, because of how much drive I have for anything that I do,” she said.
* * *
Maybe it was the pillow.
That’s what her mom, Kelly Stitt, thought when Brown complained of a sore neck one Sunday in 2016. She was 11 years old and in fifth grade, and had just spent the night at a friend’s house. Two days later, on a Tuesday morning, she had a pea-sized lump on her neck. During the middle of the day, Stitt got a text from Belle’s PE teacher. The lump that had been the size of a pea was the size of a golf ball.
Stitt took her daughter to the doctor, where she was given antibiotics. The next morning, she woke up with a fever. The lump was even bigger. After another trip to the doctor, it was time to go to the hospital in Muncie for IV antibiotics.
The needle wouldn’t go in her arm — her veins were too small, they stuck her eight times — so they put it in her neck. They ran tests and waited for results. Doctors got nowhere. Brown, who never got headaches, started getting excruciating ones.
Doctors thought she might have lymphoma. They sent her to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis for a biopsy.
After more than a week in the hospital and still waiting for results, the doctor was ready to send Belle home where she might be more comfortable. That’s when her mom noticed peeling skin on her hands.
“It was like this light bulb went off,” Stitt said.
The doctor explained what he suspected the diagnosis was: Kawasaki disease. It causes inflammation in the walls of blood vessels, and is most common in infants and young children. Some of the earliest signs can be swollen lymph nodes, a fever and peeling skin. They immediately did an EKG test. Her heart was functioning normally. However, they did find four large aneurysms.
“I’m panicking at this point,” her mom said.
They…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…