Help us celebrate Mai Neng’s Life

Our little sister Mai Neng Lor had just turned 21 years old on April 1st, 2019. She was looking forward to continuing college in the fall and experiencing life, only to find out on Sept 4th she only has a few weeks left to live. 

On July 6th, Mai went to the Mercy General ER with pain on her lower rib cage, excessive cough, and shortness of breath. After multiple lab tests, she was notified she had pulmonary embolism, blood clots, in her lungs and had already lost 25 lbs since March of 2019. 

Mai was waiting to schedule appointments with an oncologist, urologist, and pulmonologist. After two weeks of waiting, she met with the oncologist and was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer which had already spread to both her lungs and majority of her lymph nodes. By this time, the only treatment option was immunotherapy because the tumor in her kidney had already grown too large in addition to multiple nodules in her lungs. Treatment was not scheduled immediately because the oncologist wanted an MRI brain scan to see whether it had spread to her head, which meant another three weeks of waiting.

On August 12th, Mai was rushed to the UC Davis hospital because of extreme shortness of breath, exhaustion, and pain on her back. She received multiple lab tests, which included her MRI brain scan which came back negative. Because of shortness of breath, they provided her with oxygen and 4 days later began her immunotherapy because the cancer was rapidly growing. After a week of stay at the UC Davis hospital, she had already lost another 5 lbs. Mai was sent home with oxygen tanks but nurses at UC Davis informed her to come back to Mercy General Hospital because her health insurance wasn’t accepted at UC Davis. 

Mai met with her oncologist at Sierra Hematology and Oncology and was informed to come back on Sept 6th for her second treatment. By this time, her legs had started swelling and on Sept 3rd, Mai was rushed to Mercy General ER again with pain in her back, excessive coughing, and swelling and pain on both of her legs. She received another chest CT Scan and was admitted once again to the hospital. Her oncologist compared this scan to the previous one back in July, and informed her family the cancer has grown tremendously since then and that they could no longer continue her treatment. They were also informed the cancer appeared only months before she was rushed to the ER in July and the tumor in her kidney was so large it was preventing blood flow to her legs, causing them to swell. 

Although they are no longer willing to continue treatment, they will continue to monitor her through the Homecare Program if her family is willing to sign up for it. If treatment had not been delayed, more could have been done to prevent the spread of the cancer and even get rid of it. 

We are now in the process of searching for a cancer center that is willing to treat and give her a chance in life. We are doing all we can to help her get the treatment she needs, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Any donations and/or additional information to help Mai and her family at this devastating time will go towards future treatments, travels, and family expenses. 

Please help us save our little sister! We believe in miracles!