Maja (pronounced Maya) is a very strong-willed, opinionated little 2-year-old. She is a fighter and all the doctors, nurses and hospital staff say she’s a better patient than most older kids and adults and are always impressed with her. She likes to do things on her own as much as she can. She absolutely loves playing with her brother, he makes her so happy and we are so blessed they have each other. Her brother always makes her laugh. With an older brother, she prefers to play with him, with cars, trucks, and trains, over dolls. She loves to dance and sing too.
Maja was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor on January 27th, 2022. As a mother, I knew something wasn’t right a couple of weeks after her birth but the pediatrician always just said that it was colic. She was a very fussy and unhappy baby. As she got older her unhappiness turned into unwarranted random tantrums. Now we know she was trying to tell us something wasn’t right – 2 to 3 weeks before the diagnosis, she really started to not feel good. The week before, she didn’t want to walk and just wanted to lay on me and sleep. We saw a couple of doctors that week before one finally sent her for an ultrasound on 1/27 and that was the day they discovered her tumor. It had taken over her whole kidney, which was 3 times the size of a normal kidney and it had ruptured putting resulting in stage 3 cancer. The same day while being admitted to the hospital for cancer, her body went into shock, and she was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease.
Maja has had both kidneys removed, 25 rounds of chemo, and is on hemodialysis 4 days a week. She has also endured 7 days of radiation to her entire abdomen. She has had many surgeries as well (HD catheter, PD catheter, chemo port, 2 nephrectomies, and a couple of PICC lines) and will have many more in the future.
Maja is on a strict renal diet where she has a daily restriction on how much sodium, potassium, and phosphorus she can have. In addition, she has a strict daily fluid limit of 500mls. She is not able to go swimming, take a bath or shower, or run through a sprinkler because she is not supposed to get her hemodialysis catheter wet. It makes summertime hard because we’d have to sneak off so our son could do fun water stuff while she stays home.
The biggest struggle for our family is trying to juggle all her treatment visits along with having a 4-year-old at home. We have been blessed to have my mom who has been able to stay with our 4-year-old while Maja is at treatment so that dad could keep working. Also, I, the mother, had to stop working so that I could take her to all her treatments and procedures. We haven’t spent time with many family or friends to make sure Maja stays healthy and we can get through her treatment safely. We continue to mask, even our 4-year-old at school. As a parent, we sometimes feel like her little brother is missing out on the fun but thankfully at his age, he doesn’t know this yet. However, it has made him and Maja close because when she’s not getting treatment, they are together playing.
We as parents are just so impressed with her. For all that she is going through she is such a strong little girl.
Sydney is so strong. You’d never know that she’s fighting cancer. She’s so full of personality and spunk. She loves bubbles. She loves Blue’s Clues and right now she’s obsessed with her colors.
Sydney was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor on June 4th 2022. We went to urgent care for a fever. I thought she had an ear infection. The doctor was very thorough and felt like her abdomen was a bit enlarged and ordered an X-ray. She told me her liver was enlarged and sent me to the ER where they did an ultrasound and blood work. They informed us that Sydney had a large abdominal tumor and they suspected that it was Wilms Tumor. We were admitted on 6/8/22 and she had surgery to remove the tumor and her right kidney.
Along with her tumor removal, she had a port placed. She has also received 12 rounds of chemo so far. She had 2 ultrasounds, 2 chest X-rays, and a CT scan. Our biggest struggle has been adjusting our work schedules. Sydney had to be pulled out of daycare so one of us is always available to care for her in and out of the hospital.
Sydney’s diagnosis was an immediate shock. No one ever thinks their child will get cancer. It was the furthest thing from our minds. It has changed our day-to-day schedules and I can’t always include Sydney in everything because I don’t want to risk her getting sick.
Sydney has a 10-year-old brother who took this very hard at first. We lost my father to cancer 4 years ago so when he heard that his sister had cancer, it was very hard and he thought the worst. It is extra tough because, with Covid procedures, I haven’t been able to bring him along to any appointments or chemo rounds. He wanted to visit her in the hospital and couldn’t.
Alyssa loves to smile and loves making people laugh. Her personality is so contagious! She loves hugs and has so much love to give! She is half Samoan and Salvadoran and she takes so much pride in her heritage but she is partial to her Samoan side. She even does Polynesian dancing. She can do the hula, Tahitian dance, and Siva (traditional Samoan dancing). She speaks Samoan as well. She loves unicorns, Disney princesses, mermaids, and outer space. We have gone stargazing so many times as a family.
Alyssa was diagnosed with Wilm’s Tumor in November of 2021, right before Thanksgiving. We were so blessed she only spent a week in the hospital and was released the day before Thanksgiving. It was the most emotional Thanksgiving we’ve ever had but, we are so grateful that we were able to be with family and celebrate love and thankfulness.
Alyssa was the one who told me something didn’t seem right with her belly. After she showered from school, she noticed her belly was bigger on one side. She had no other symptoms. She is always a happy and active child, but even in the hospital, her positive spirit and activeness never wavered. She went through 30 weeks of chemo, six days of radiation, port insertion/removal, and removal of her left kidney. She has no limitations from her treatment and is cancer free!
Cancer has definitely changed our family. We are more aware of our bodies but Alyssa’s diagnosis has made us into a much stronger unit. Her positive outlook on life has taught us much! She is wise beyond her years and has taught me so much!
Alyssa has shown such strength, love, and confidence (she ROCKED her bald head!). Her positivity through it all, helped us cope. She is the only girl out of her four siblings so she has this very nurturing love for her brothers.
Georgia is just the best. Everyone loves her. She is bubbly and silly. She is curious and very smart and is obsessed with Bluey, Peppa Pig, and all things princesses. She is just the sweetest little peach.
Georgia was diagnosed with Kidney cancer on Easter. She had a total right nephrectomy with tumor removal and port placement. She is currently undergoing a 19-week course of chemo. Before her diagnosis, she didn’t have symptoms. I was changing her diaper and it was bloody so we went right to the ER.
Aside from her regular treatment protocol, Georgia has had ER trips due to bleeding and Covid and has had transfusions of both blood and platelets.
Cancer has changed our lives tremendously. I have had to take months off of work to care for Georgia – our whole world was turned upside down in an instant. Georgia even had to stop going to school and our vacations were canceled.
Jessica was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor in May of 2021. The only symptom she had was a tummy ache.
She had 33 weeks of treatment, 13 days of radiation, chemotherapy, and kidney removal. The biggest struggle has been the covid procedures at the hospital and not letting our family stay together through the bulk of this. Even on her last day of chemo, my older 2 kids were not allowed to celebrate in the clinic.
We were a close-knit family before cancer- but we are even closer now.
Carter was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor when he was 3 years old in 2014. All the doctors said my said was fine. My intuition as his mom told me otherwise. No one believed me including my husband and his dad that something was wrong. I was fed up and took him into the TCH ER on a Saturday morning. After 18 hours of pokes, scans, and lots of tears he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I was also 7 months pregnant with my second son, which made his treatment phase very trying.
He went through surgery to have his kidney removed, radiation and chemotherapy. Through all of this we are grateful for every day.
