Molly, a brave 14-year old girl, is fighting Ewing sarcoma. This will not be an easy fight but together with her loving parents, Bryan and Maria,  the peace and guidance of the Lord, and her amazing doctors, she is ready to beat this.


What you can do for Molly:
 
-PRAYER: Treatments like these can be hard to digest and hard to keep information straight. Molly's mom is keeping a CaringBridge site up to date as they work through the many twists and turns.  For up-to-date information and specific prayer needs, follow their story here: 

Mollys Caring Bridge 

 
-DONATIONS: This gofundme is a great way to make help available to Bryan, Maria and the family. The goal represents the estimated costs for medical treatment over the next year. Additionally, they will have other costs outside of  “medical” needs such as gas to treatment and follow ups in Ft. Worth, hotels during and sometimes following treatments, and other things to keep Molly connected to friends and family and school. There will also be costs for dealing with changes in the house and professional house cleanings because she will be immunocompromised.

Please consider coming along side this family with us as they begin this journey.

To best illustrate how quickly and dizzying this process has began, I will use the words of her mom, Maria:

 

A few months ago Molly told us that part of her face was numb and tingly. We thought her mask might be a little tight, it could be her braces, sinuses, etc so we didn't think too much of it. The sensation began to be constant and we decided to take her to the pediatrician. He did a thorough neurological exam, agreed that the isolated area was strange, but it didn't send off alarm bells for him. We decided to wait and watch and if there were any changes, we would go to the pediatric neurologist. That was on August 23.

 

September 4

Molly gets a haircut. Our stylist doesn't notice any bumps on her head.

 

October 4

We see the pediatric neurologist. Her numbness has extended to her lip area. By this time Molly has told us that she has 2 bumps on her head. One, we believe, may have been there for quite some time. I remember thinking that no one's head is completely round, but it wasn't large enough to cause me concern. But by the time we saw the neurologist, she had 2 and they were definitely large enough to feel. He ordered an MRI and lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and was concerned, but really didn't mention cancer or even venture to guess what was going on. The order of the spinal tap was beginning to worry us. Molly also had been telling us that her ear (same side as the numbness) feels stopped up. Again, we had a cold go through the family, so we thought it might be an ear infection.

 

October 11

Molly gets on a nasal steroid in the hopes of clearing up the full feeling in her ear.

 

October 19

Molly gets her MRI. Prior to this appointment, they warned me that on the off-chance if they saw a tumor, they wouldn't do the lumbar puncture because it might put additional pressure on the brain. Halfway through the MRI they come out and ask permission to add contrast. Not a good change of plans. Then they tell us they can't do the lumbar puncture. They said it could be bc 1) it wasn't necessary or 2) it wasn't safe. I was officially worried.

 

October 20

Our follow-up with the pediatric neurologist revealed that Molly had not 2 but 3 tumors in her skull. We learned that they weren't inside her brain, but they were putting some pressure on the brain. He thought they grew slowly which allowed the brain to compensate for the pressure. The 2 tumors we could feel were obvious, but the 3rd one is deep inside her skull about 2 inches behind her nose to the right, which would account for the decreased sensation, tingling, and possibly the fullness in her ear. He wasn't sure if the tumors were coming from the skull bone itself or the membranes encasing the brain. He mentioned the word "pediatric oncologist team" and it's then that we knew - this looked like cancer. He told us that he would really be handing us off to the oncologist/hematologist team and they would determine what further tests need to be done and they would be in touch very soon. October 20th happens to be my birthday, so we went home, told everyone to forget homework and we went bowling as a family.

 

October 21

We get a call in the afternoon from the hospital that we were on their schedule for brain surgery the next day. We got a lot of calls that day and jumped into action. We prepared for a brain CT, craniotomy, and a brain biopsy and went to bed not knowing really what would happen next.

 

October 22

We arrive early and Molly has the head CT done. We get brought back to a room and proceed to wait for quite awhile. The staff there (Cook's Children's Fort Worth) were all fantastic. While we were waiting to be prepped for surgery, a team came in and said that a chest xray has been ordered. I really wasn't liking this. While not knowing what was going on behind the scene, I assumed that they saw something in the CT and now were now worried about the lungs. Bryan remained more hopeful that the xray was just precautionary before surgery since she had a cold a couple of weeks ago. The surgery was pushed out a bit so there was a bit of waiting, but Molly chatted with her friends and we hoped for not-terrible news.

 

The pediatric neurosurgeon came in at the same time as a priest. I wasn't sure to think this was good timing or a terrible sign. The neurosurgeon explained that the tumors were cancerous and did indeed seem very bony and that he would have a difficult time getting a biopsy. He was able to make a plan though and explained to us that he also saw what looked like "spot" in her lungs. Not good. But he was so incredibly kind. He asked if he could lead us in prayer and held our hands and prayed with us. While he went to get ready, Molly was able to go to Confession and received a full Anointing of the Sick - old school style. The priest was a wonderful gift. God bless Fr. Bolin.

 

The neurosurgeon came to update us after the surgery that she was recovering well. He was able to get a good portion of the lower tumor and it would be sent off and discussed at "conference" on Tuesday. He would be consulting with other experts, but he was very grim in his outlook without having to say it. He said with the spot in the lungs, she could very well have others, so he said it's already metastasized. I managed to ask him how we knew that we had the best team for Molly here in Fort Worth. He said that the pediatric cancer world is small and that with covid, it's gotten easier to truly have the expertise available for all patients instead of the historical experts only seeing patients in select locations. Plus, having our support system nearby would also help the patient. Okay... so we wait for the biopsy results to know more.

 

Saturday, October 23 - October 26 are just a blur. I know I got kids to soccer games, to school, even to a Trunk or Treat, and managed to do things, but I don't remember. Molly went to school on Monday. I am so proud of her for doing that. We've kept the school up to date and she knew they knew. We knew she needed her friends and whatever degree of normal could be had. We were keeping up with any notes added to her online chart. The tumor looked liked osteosarcoma. While normally, it would occur in the arm or leg and could be amputated, the tumors in her head were inoperable as determined by the neurosurgeon. I prayed for any good news when I could pray.

 

October 27

We finally met the pediatric oncologist to find out more. She said it did NOT look like osteosarcoma. The relief of that statement was so profound. Rather it looked like her tumors were in the Ewing sarcoma family. The Dr started to say the word "treatment" and life was suddenly not completely over. She explained that her tumors are extremely rare and in an uncommon place for the type of cancer. More tests needed to happen to narrow down the type of Ewings, but that having cancer with a name meant that there was some understanding of it. Ewings does have a treatment protocol and this was all explained to us over about a 4-hour visit.

 

Molly's tough road ahead:

 

Molly will get several types of chemotherapy, all of which will be given inpatient. Treatment will need to be hard and fast.

 

These chemos will be given in alternating 2 day stays and 5 day stays every 2 weeks as tolerated by her body. No one is able to do this every 2 weeks because of their immune system bottoming out along with other complications. Treatment is estimated to take about 9 months.

 

Molly will lose all her hair. Her braces need to come off.

 

Molly will need to be home-bound for school, likely for the rest of the year.

Join us in support  for Molly and her family.  

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart celebrates, and I give thanks to him with my song. - Psalm 28:7