Ian had just started daycare, it had been his second week going, and we had noticed his belly was a little too round. He was a little chubby so it was hard to tell if it was normal or not. After some days, we definitely thought it wasn’t normal, took him to the doctor and she stated it was because he was a chubby baby. The next day, took him to his daycare, when we picked him up, the daycare provider told us, she didn’t think his belly was normal and she had felt her belly and that his right side didn’t feel soft, it was as if there was something there. She told us, in order for the baby to be accepted the following days to daycare he needed a letter from the doctor stating; his belly was normal and was safe to return to the daycare facility. Since I had not much success with his regular doctor, I decided to take him to CHLA Emergency room, mind you, he had no symptoms of anything, no infections, no fevers, not throwing up, or diarrhea…absolutely no symptoms.
We walked into the emergency room with all 3 boys we have thinking they’ll just tell us he has gas or maybe constipation or something simple that would explain the lump or hardness on his right side, at plain sight he was the happiest and most healthy boy you’ve seen inside an ER.
Time passed, they did all the tests necessary, and the doctor, just by looking at him, could see there was something not normal about his belly. Then after hours of anxiously waiting for results, the doctor comes in and tells my oldest 8-year-old son to leave the room. That’s the moment we went numb and everything went pitch dark for a second.
It wasn’t a lump, it was a mass growing from his right kidney. He needed his right kidney along with the tumor to be removed immediately so they can do the biopsy and determine what it was. After more time at the hospital and testing, he was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor Cancer.
Fortunately, it was caught in time thanks to the daycare provider and the prompt work of the CHLA oncology division. He underwent 6 months of chemotherapy treatment, he is now in remission and doing his revisions.
While in treatment, I had somehow found this website and loved everything about it. At the time, I couldn’t really find the strength to even say my son has/ had cancer. Today I’m so grateful he is doing great and wouldn’t want to discredit anything he went through at such a young age. He is my ultimate superhero.
Hope session by Violet Summer Photography | Facebook