WARDEN — Almost six months from the day she received her initial diagnosis, Avree Pruneda is cancer-free and loving it.

Pruneda was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in January after developing a tumor in her arm. In late April, she had surgery that removed the large part of the tumor and is now in the preventive phase with chemotherapy. Her final chemo treatments — at least everyone hopes they’re final — begin in the fall.

“My grandma passed away from cancer, so I thought to myself, ‘I did this Grandma, I did this for you. I beat this for you,’” she said. “It was great to get off my chest.”

Avree’s mother, Tara Pruneda, said it feels good to be where they are given where the journey began. Even with the progress Avree’s made, Tara said the road’s still been tough.

Avree’s chemotherapy schedule involves an alternating five- and two-day treatment with 14 days in between. As her body wears down from the barrage of chemotherapy, Tara said, treatments are sometimes put off if her white blood cell numbers aren’t high enough.

Tara said the side effects of the chemotherapy treatments are something she doesn’t think people always think about when they consider the battle with cancer. She said Avree’s body will spike a fever at 2 a.m. as a result of her treatment, leading to another stay in Spokane just to make sure it’s only her weakened immune system trying to fight.

Tara said there are just things you learn are going to happen.

“You think you’re just gonna go and do chemo, and come home and recover, and it just doesn’t work like that,” she said.

With Tara and Avree making constant trips to Spokane, Avree’s dad Gabe Pruneda has been working and looking after Avree’s younger brother. Hospital restrictions limit patients to having just one other person at the hospital with them.

While Tara said they’ve had a lot of support from everyone, added restrictions have limited some of their options. Due to COVID-19, she said, the pediatric cancer wing at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital in Spokane has seen a smaller number of patients. As a result, she said they’ve been moved to a smaller room in the pediatric wing.

“She has her pole attached to her the whole time we’re there; she has to drag that thing everywhere because it has all her fluids and stuff,” Tara Pruneda said. “With these new rooms, they’re just so small. It’s hard to maneuver around now. It’s just like, once we get in a groove, another wrench gets thrown in.”

Tara said their doctors and nurses in Spokane have been outstanding. Other groups have helped with offering things such as snacks, gift cards and gas vouchers for traveling to and from the hospital. “It’s really the small things,” she said.

In March, a few months into her treatment and fight with cancer, Avree said the toughest part was not being able to be with friends. She has struggled a great deal at times with the isolation, she said.

“Not being able to be at home, just seeing the four same walls over and over again and not being able to see like anybody, it’s just really taken a toll on me,” she said. “Like I’ve said before, I’m just a social person, so not being able to see my people at all, it really just makes you sad and depressed.”

Avree said she has tried to occupy her time with other things — art, video games, music — but admitted she isn’t sure what else to do.

“I’m lost,” she said.

Tara said a few of Avree’s friends and cousins were able to visit briefly after isolating themselves. Avree has stayed in touch with friends through FaceTime calls and playing video games online, but it’s not the same as being able to visit in person, she added.

Coming out of a successful surgery in April, receiving the news that Avree was cancer-free, Tara said they learned how special those moments were.

“As we were in the cancer wing all the time, we realize those moments come few and far between, how lucky Avree is to be cancer-free and that they got all of her cancer and we’re just doing preventative treatment now,” Tara Pruneda said. “We have lots of kids up there that we know where that’s not their case.”

It’s tough to describe how heartbreaking it is to see so many young kids deal with such difficult roads, Tara Pruneda said. “These kids definitely see things and have an appreciation well before their time. They’re dealing with things that most teenagers are definitely not dealing with.”