Kena’i fight & recover from his brain tumor.

Hi, my name is Alina Rivera. I am Kena’i Mapu’s mom, for the past 6 months my son’s behavior shifted from a happy, crazy, & non stop - on the go kiddo to one who is constantly sick, throwing up, laying down all day & just no energy. I had brought these concerns up to my sons primary care providers at Kaiser permanente in Olympia WA but they continuously turned us away or said it was a “stomach issue”. They ignored every serious sign that it was something more, even my sons dizziness & fainting didn’t change their ignorant judgement. On September 1st my son had almost fainted getting up for school & was begging me to carry him, shaking & couldn’t keep himself up. I knew I had to bring him into the emergency room because I knew something was wrong with my son. They decided to do a CT scan on his head & found a giant tumor on the back of his brain… that was the worst news we could get. They had to set my son up for emergency surgery & were able to get most of it out but due to it being on his brain stem & being a more serious tumor the neurosurgeon didn’t want to take any risks. We are still waiting to hear if his tumor is cancerous & know that we have a looooong journey ahead of us. My son went from a healthy 4 year old to one that’s stuck in a hospital bed. He will have to re-learn a lot, & may have to start over on many things that he already knew. I never ask for help but in this situation I have no choice… our medical bills will be alit even with insurance & the hospitals help. I will also have to miss many weeks of work as well as his step dad which means all of our saving will be out eventually. I am asking if you can donate, that would be greatly appreciated. Even just a share, my son is my entire world & I can’t miss out on being there for him right now. He has a long road ahead of him.