Armando Azael

Hi!
We are Armando Azael's parents. Our baby turns 2 years old on December 13. As many know, since we have shared most of their procedures through our networks, Armandito has a tumor in his little neck on the right side that “hugs” the carotid and aorta. To know a little more, we will talk about our “journey” that began in November 2018. At the end of this month he was hospitalized for 5 days with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis. During follow-up appointments, his Pulmonologist refers us to the ENT who sends a series of studies i.e, sonogram since she felt several nodules. After approximately 3-4 monitoring appointments and studies, she tells us that she should perform the sleep apnea study (May 27) since we had told her that Armandito was snoring a lot and had noticed the inflamed tonsils. The results indicated that he suffered from obstructive apnea and for this reason the ENT decided to operate it to remove his tonsils and adenoids. We scheduled the operation for August 8 in which the doctor tells us that it would not last more than 45 minutes. August 8th came, Angel and I, waiting in the room, spent 1 hour and a half. As parents at last, we were beginning to think the worst. Finally, they call us to the recovery area and tell us to wait while the doctor can talk to us. The ENT tells us that before starting to remove the tonsils, since she had a better visual field, she could see that the obstructive apnea was not caused by inflamed tonsils or adenoids, but by a "small mass" just behind the right tonsil than when It looked without medical equipment, it seemed that the tonsil was inflamed. She decided to take a little piece to send to perform a biopsy and from there she sent us to perform a CT scan of his face and neck, taking advantage of the fact that he was still asleep due to anesthesia. In 2 weeks, August 23, she tells us that the biopsy had arrived and that it ONLY said that the mass was of fibromuscular tissue, in other words, she did not have enough information and asked that we make an appointment to perform an MRI since it is a little more specific and would give them more information regarding the mass. On August 29, MRI's appointment, the doctor was awaiting completion to see the images and decided to take him to the operating room immediately to remove a nodule and perform another biopsy with a slightly larger piece to have better results. She then and there told us that the tumor was in fact not small, but really big. We stayed one night in pediatric intensive and then on a regular floor. They did so many studies, including CT, MRI, x rays, blood studies waiting for the long-awaited preliminary biopsy result. September 3, 2019 they tell us that the biopsy indicated that the mass is a small, round and blue cell tumor which meant that there was a possibility of being cancer BUT we had to wait for the official result to arrive and not get ahead. We cried, shouted and fought, but always strong for our baby. On September 13, the final result arrives indicating that the tumor was called Infant Myofibromatosis, but that the pathologist was not satisfied with this result and that the tumor would be taken to another more specialized hospital to continue studying. Advancing to the latest, the ENT, together with the oncologist and pathologist, indicate that the result of this latest biopsy says that it is a "Mensenchymal Neoplasm with malignant potential" and they suggest that we conduct a study called "genetic sequencing" where they study the tumor in a more thorough manner to finally find the correct diagnosis and then start a treatment / operation. This study is done in a US laboratory called Foundation One. It costs $ 5.8k. The steps were taken so that Armandito belongs to the San Jorge Foundation since any help is necessary. That is why we decided to open this account, after thinking about it a million times, requesting the cooperation of friends and family to cover expenses of the genetic study, laboratories, and other procedures outside of PR since we were referred to another hospital in Atlanta. Any donation is MORE THAN THANKFUL!