“I now have to ask them, ‘Which cancer are you calling about?’”
Tayler Gailey (right) aged 2 with her mother, Lisa Gailey. Photo / Christine Cornege
Gailey also said she felt a strong sense of guilt knowing her own prognosis was far better than Tayler’s.
“It’s just the lesser of the two evils,” she said.
“I feel quite guilty that there’s treatment for me and not for Tay.”
While her own cancer was “fast-growing”, Gailey said doctors expected it to respond well to treatment.
But she said the timing of her diagnosis left her feeling as though precious time with Tayler was being taken away.
“I don’t really feel anything other than annoyed at the inconvenience and the timing, like, what kind of timing is that?” she said.
“It makes me feel like I’m being robbed of time, whatever time Tay has left.”
Lisa Gailey (left) with Tayler Gailey. Photo / Jess
Tayler had already defied the odds after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour as a toddler and given just nine months to live.
After 15 years of stable cancer, another tumour was discovered deep within her brainstem in February.
Gailey told the Herald in June that Tayler had lived with “a lot of radiation injury”, including mobility and cognitive difficulties, speech impediments, multiple surgeries, and a hip replacement.
She has since undergone radiation and suffered a series of complications, including pneumonia, a collapsed lung and blood clots in her lungs.
Tayler Paige was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma (DIPG) in 2011. Photo / Lisa Gailey
Tayler is now home but requires significant assistance, including a wheelchair and hoist.
Gailey said Tayler was worried about what her mother’s cancer treatment would mean for her.
“I thought she might feel not so alone in her own situation … but she’s worried, I think.
“She’s said things like, ‘But you know that I need you all the time when I’m like this’.
“I think her fear is more not being with me … having to leave her for a day or two to go and have treatment.”
Tayler Gailey with her siblings and mother. Photo / Jess
Gailey’s treatment plan involves four months of chemotherapy, followed by surgery and radiation, then another six months of chemotherapy.
“Tayler’s lost so much and I know she’s frustrated, she’s sad.
“It takes a lot to actually get her to smile, which is devastating because she always had this big smile on her face.”
Tayler Gailey is battling a tumour in her brainstem. Photo / Givealittle
Despite everything the family is facing, Gailey said their home was not defined by sadness.
“The story sounds really, really sad, and it is, but, on a day-to-day basis, Tayler’s still got all her faculties, she still is hilarious.
“Everything we do, we cope by humour.”
Funds raised through the family’s Givealittle page will help support both Lisa and Tayler through treatment, including travel, accommodation, fuel, meals and lost income.