Donate to help Schuy fight aggressive Leukemia

Warm greetings friends and family,

 

My late cousin Ate Ondith/Lourdes Juarez Ramos's daughter, Isabel in the Philippines suddenly discovered her son Schuy has a very aggressive form of Burkitt's Leukemia. It is an expensive disease to treat, and Schuy and Isabel have been walking through increasingly dire straits while still fighting to stay strong and positive! Schuy is the first grandson of my cousins Ric Elec Escobar Ramos and Lourdes Juarez Ramos. Their family was so kind to me as a child growing up with limited resources, so I want to do all I can to help them in their time of desperate need. Every donation will help cover Schuy's burgeoning medical bills and help to keep this precious family afloat in their most challenging season. Please read Isabel's account below. Thank you loved ones for your time, donations, and prayers!

 

Love always,

Marissa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message from Isabel recounting the past few months of Schuy's diagnosis and treatment:

 

As his mom, I've always seen Schuy as a physically fit, healthy, and active boy growing up. He has never been hospitalized. Until one day in December 2021 he said that he was experiencing hemorrhoids, so he had an online consultation with a doctor, and he was prescribed Daflon and Tranexamic Acid. We really thought it was just a simple sickness. Days passed and he experienced severe jaw pains, headaches, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea. Brought him to the clinic to do some blood work. When the results came out, his blood platelets and hemoglobin were super low. He needed to be rushed to the hospital. This was really a nightmare going to the ER on the surge of the pandemic last December. There were so many fears and it was really uncomfortable looking at him so frail and pale and suffering in pain. They could not diagnose what happened to him. All they know is that he got thrombocytopenia because of low platelets counts. They did a couple of blood transfusions but platelets kept going down. But always experienced adverse side effects of fever and rashes all over his body. Even in the ER they did so many tests on him: CT scan, x-ray, ultrasound, MRI. He was feeling very miserable, and watching while taking care of him was so difficult with sleepless nights.

 

Finally after two days we got admitted to the room. He still had to do a blood transfusion everyday. This was a very stressful time because his blood type O+ is not always available. There is constant anxiety if there will be available blood for him, and aside from that he also started to bleed. Everytime he has a bowel movement, blood comes out. In the second week of blood transfusions, RBC was still low, so the doctor decided to do BMA. They did so many repeat tests again: MRI, CT=scan, 2D-echo, x rays and series of blood works. It took a week to get the results, and it happened that Christmas season tests results were delayed. It was painful to see his body deteriorating rapidly, severe jaw pains, headaches, difficulty talking and chewing, losing his vision, becoming crossed eyed, barely having strength, no pain medicine relieves his jaw and headaches, constant vomiting, bleeding in stool, loss of weight. We both had sleepless nights and it was tough because I’m his sole caregiver. At this time, he can no longer eat, talk or walk. They have to put NGT on him, he lost so much weight, 20 kgs.

 

The results came in, we could not believe, Schuy was diagnosed with High Grade Mature B-cell Neoplasm as Burkitt’s Leukemia with bone marrow involvement by a triple-hit-B-cell High Grade Lymphoma. When we learned the news, no parent was prepared for Schuy’s cancer. Following were days of tests, uncertainty, fears and loads of prayers. His Hematology and Oncology decided to start his chemotherapy with blood transfusion in between treatments. His chemotherapy will be a total of 8 rounds of aggressive treatment 4 cycles alternating R-codox and Ivac protocol.

 

Slowly there were improvements on his blood platelets and hemoglobin. There is still pain, bleeding in stool, speech and vision problems. He’s not able to walk at all because of muscle weakness. After the second rounds of chemotherapy there were more improvements, no more jaw pain and headaches, he started to talk, able to eat and his vision is improving. It's not over yet. He’s making his way through battles everyday with his trademark smile, positive attitude, dance moves and unwavering confidence.

 

From the bottom of our hearts thank you for your donations, every donation counts no matter large or small.