Kaleah
by Shanna

After gathering my thoughts, here is a summary of Kaleah (Leah) Mishon.

Leah (otherwise known to her family as "Jet") simply because she is a mover and a shaker, is a bright light! Our family is spiritual and sometimes we can be quite hard on ourselves.  When Leah was born, she was truly one of the most perfect, beautiful babies most people had ever seen.  My mother and I often reflect as to maybe God didn't like us focusing on her beauty so much and is teaching us a lesson about vanity.  Of course, we only think that when we are at our lowest points, for example, when Leah gets burned from being in the sun all day and is so uncomfortable she can hardly wear clothes to bed, or when the stares of strangers get to be overwhelming even for us.  We try to focus on the positive most of the time.

When Kaleah was three years old we noticed a small pea sized spot near her eye.  After a few weeks, it seemed to get a bit bigger.  My older daughter had been swimming and had a reaction to chlorine, so we made an appointment at the dermatologist.  Of course "Leah" tagged along.  As we were leaving the appointment, I casually said to the doctor "would you look at Leah's face and tell me what you think about the spot near her eye?"  He looked at her and then at me and I'll never forget the look on his face.  It scared me.  All I could think of was cancer.  He told me he was pretty sure that she had a condition called Vitiligo.  He then showed me pictures of people that had the disorder, and I thought I was going to faint.  I was in denial, so I got a second opinion and again was hit with the same diagnosis.  It was then I was able to cry about what would become of my little Leah's life.  It continued to spread, slowly at first, then it took on a life of its own.

We took her to the Omaha Medical Center, where we met a doctor that told us of procedures that may help to bring some color back, but no promises.  Our insurance company fought us tooth and nail. They refused to cover the PUVA treatments.  They saw them as being cosmetic and experimental.  I wrote letters, sent pictures of Leah (which was hard on me subjecting her to posing with no shirt on, because at that time she had lost all color on her torso, it still brings tears to my eyes).  They still denied the claims and the bills continued to mount up.  At one point Leah said she was tired of having to go three days a week and we really didn't see her regaining much pigment.  Finally, we found an insurance company that was willing to work with us, but by that time Leah was in first grade and was uncomfortable with wearing the goggles in school all day  (she was taking oral psoralen and it can be hard on your eyes in sunlight). She finally said she had had enough, so we took a break.

Leah is a tough little camper.  She really tries hard to avoid the stares that people continue to do without thought to how it may affect this little person.  She has learned to stand up for herself when people inquire about her spots, but even she grows weary of people who point and children who don't know any better asking "what is wrong with that little girl"?  When I ask her about being old enough to make the decision to depigment completely, she gets upset at the thought of not looking like the rest of her family.

As parents we constantly try to reassure Leah that she is a bright, beautiful, gifted human being.  We pray that God continues to keep her brave.  She has taught us that it is the heart of a person that counts, and that we should try not to get so upset with people that do not understand what Vitiligo is all about.  She is feisty and has tons of personality, her father has said, "God made Leah strong for a reason"  I do believe she was sent to us to teach people about differences and she does that quite well everyday.

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