Cami Be Brave, I'll grab my light and go with you.

As I'm staring at this, I'm still in absolute shock. My whole world blew up in one second. It was like I was handed a granade and it exploded in my hands. I felt my spirit leave my body from the shock. I don't even know where to start. So I will start with my name. My name is Veronica my son Camillo was diagnosed with Leukemia August 18, 2023. For as long as I could remember I wanted to be a Mom. But after many many years of infertility I gave up hope. Then one day I got the shock of my life when my Mom bought me a pregnancy test and said you're pregnant "I've been craving Doritos and sour cream, I hate that crap!" I took the test and Cami was well on his way. He had a rough start into the world upon birth. He got stuck in my birthing canal and needed to be revived. This kid is the epitome of a miracle baby.

I'm sitting in the PICU and my son is getting prepped for dialysis. He is only 11 years old and he had an absolute meltdown because the prep to start his treatment to get a catheter inserted into his groin was scary for him. I had to watch him agonizing and crying. It's something no child should go through.

On August 3, 2023, we caught COVID. We all got better in 4 days. But Cami did not. He had a fever, stiff neck and headache at first. Then began the weak legs, loss of appetite, feeling full after two bites of food and no desire to drink. He had a tiny cough. Always present was excessive sleeping and tiredness. Then on the 13th came the nausea and vomiting, along with shortness of breath and double vision.

After he vomited several times we jumped in the car and we were off to the ER. We will call this location #1. At the ER in location #1 they were pretty busy and that is understandable. What is not understandable is after observing Cami it was obvious he was seriously dehydrated. They did not give him an IV. They had us sitting in the hall for 6 hours and took a chest x-ray, and gave us Tylenol and Motrin. They did a nasal swab and sent us on our way because his chest x-ray was clear of infection. (Remember this part for me.) They wrote him a note to return to school Wednesday.

So for two days I made it my mission to hydrate and feed him. I gave him water and a few sips of Gatorade every half an hour. I fed him whatever he could stomach every 1.5 hours even if it was only two bites. Fevers got a little better but only because of the meds. He still felt off but I COVID tested and he read as negative ( I now know it was a false negative). Wednesday morning Cami got so excited he wanted to see his friends after a long summer. He was so excited to see his friends. Unfortunately that day was cut super short. After I dropped him off at school I got a call while I was walking into my front door from the school nurse to inform me Cami almost passed out.

Suffice to say we had round two at location #1 ER. Upon arrival the attending nurse seemed agitated that I took him back and blurted out "He is weak due to having COVID. What do you want me to do? I said what do you mean??? You are a medical professional". She told Cami to toughen up and ride out the wave of covid. and were booted out of the door within 15 min.

I can't begin to describe my frustration because I knew and felt in my heart he was off. I tried over the course of the next two days to hydrate and feed him. I even tried to make him walk thinking the weakness was from not walking around. He would get winded and have to take breaks after a few steps.

Please please listen to your children don't assume laziness when they talk about weak legs. . On Friday the 18th of August the attending nurse from location #1 called to check on Cami. I told her he had no progress. On August 17th I came across an article about MIS-C. That is a side effect of COVID in kids it's an inflammation syndrome that can be life threatening and Cami had all of the symptoms of it. When the nurse followed up with me that day I told her I suspected MIS-C. She said if I suspect that take him to the ER now. She said do not bring him here he needs a PICU. She made two suggestions with hospitals that have a PICU. BUT emphasized that she would bring her child to the ER in Long Beach. Upon her urgency we were in the car headed to the PICU within 15 min.

I told this team my concern and with 45 minutes I knew what was wrong with my baby and it was not COVID related. I'm not going to go into detail about how the news was broke to me. As you can imagine I left my body. I will say that from the start Cami was in the hands of a devine nature. This PICU did a CHEST XRAY and a small mass was spotted above the heart and because of this the team knew what to test his blood for. The leukemia was wrecking havoc on his small body.

Cami is such an amazing child. He brightens everyone up with his goofy buck tooth smile. When he was 2 years old he fell in love with Dinosaurs. That is a passion that he still has to this day. He hopes to one day attend Berkeley and become a paleotologist. He loves telling jokes especially cheesy puns! He is an amazing older brother to his brother Darby. He loves music and going to concerts with his Dad. He loves Imagine Dragons, 21 Pilots and Dropkick Murphys. He is an avid gamer and loves Fortnite and playing epic days long Minecraft sessions with his stepdad David, Darby, My brother, His godfather Darious and me. Cami is the first to friend a kid who might be having a hard time. I watched him get out of line on his first day of 1st grade to help out a boy crying at the fence begging to go home because he was afraid and told his Mom he had no friends. My son walked up to this boy and said "Hi, my name is Cami we're friends now. Follow me.". The kid wiped his tears and followed Cami. When Cami is afraid he talks to himself in third person and chants "Cami be brave". He has done a lot of that here. I've had to beg him to pull out that strength to get past very scary things here. It's our turn to be brave for Cami.

The purpose for this gofund me is to raise funds for a second car as we currently only have one making it difficult for David to get to work and for me to be here at the PICU. We need child care for our son Darby and we desperately need to move out from our tiny home to offer Cami the space he will need once he is home and receiving chemo.

Anything will help. If you know me you know how humble I am. I don't like asking for help. But I need it now more than ever and so does Cami. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.