Synon's Urgent Cancer Care Journey

My name is Sasha Conley, a single mother of 4. Six months ago, my third child, Synon Conley, went to urgent care because he didn’t want to eat anything and all he wanted to do was sleep. Urgent care sent him to a hospital in Springfield where he spent 3 days. The hospital said he was “severely constipated.” Synon's stomach was very big at the time. The 3 days he spent there, he was pumped with Miralax several times a day and he still wouldn’t poop. Synon was in a lot of pain; he would cry when you touched him, he didn’t want to move or walk. The hospital in Springfield discharged my baby and said that since he pooped (which was very little) on the third day, he was okay to go home, even with him not being able to physically walk out of the hospital like he was able to walk in. They sent him home saying the reason Synon didn’t want to walk and was acting like he was in so much pain was because he had been constipated and had Rhino Virus. Synon went home with me and he laid in his bed for 3 days not wanting to eat, constantly throwing up, had blood in his diapers, and was even spitting up blood. Luckily, Synon had a follow-up appointment at Crossing Healthcare and when the doctor saw him, he immediately knew something was very wrong with Synon. He told me to take Synon back to the hospital in Springfield. So, I went home, waited for my other kids to get out of school, and was going to take him later on so the emergency room wouldn’t be packed. Crossing closed at 4:30 pm and the doctor from Crossing was still calling me at almost 7 asking why Synon hadn’t made it to the hospital. I got to the hospital and they gave him an immediate room because of how he looked and how he was breathing. They took Synon for a CAT scan and about an hour went by. About 8-9 doctors walked in and one said, “We found what was wrong. Synon has a very big tumor on his liver.” Synon was rushed to St. Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri where his team deemed him "the sickest child" they had seen in the PICU in a while! They also discovered that not only did Synon have a tumor on his liver that was cancerous, but that the cancer had started spreading to his lungs! Oh, and they also discovered that the reason why Synon had stopped wanting to walk and didn’t want anybody to touch him wasn’t because of Rhino Virus! It was because his tumor on his liver had ruptured and Synon started bleeding on the inside and had been bleeding slowly on the inside when he went home with me. Synon was rushed to an emergency procedure to stop the bleeding, which was successful! My son was medically neglected and it could have cost him his life. I just recently asked his doctor (because I was afraid of the answer), "If Synon wasn’t rushed to the procedure, how long would he have had to survive with bleeding internally?" She looked me dead in my eyes and said, "Hours, maybe till the next day." Synon was admitted on November 9 and just got out on April 23 on a temporary leave because his birthday is Sunday. His liver tumor was removed but the cancer remains in his lungs. It has cost me so much money driving back and forth from Decatur to St. Louis 2-3 times a week because I have 3 other kids, a new baby that was only 1 month old when he got admitted, and two school-age kids, 8 and 9. I've had to come out of pocket for hotel rooms, babysitters, gas back and forth, some of his medicine out of pocket, food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for the kids in St. Louis, and now with him home, he still has a long road ahead having to go to St. Louis for chemo and labs every week. I can barely work right now and still try to maintain all my bills alone. Anything that’s given is much appreciated and thank you all in advance .