Lilly's battle against Kidney Cancer!

Lilly McComb was a happy healthy 9 year old, she had a series of flu bugs between November and March and Mom started to become concerned that she was losing weight but Mom and doctors thought it was just due to the flu bugs and the fact that she had grown quite a bit.  Little did anyone know that she had a tumor that was growing aggressively.

On Friday March 1st Lilly was playing dodgeball in gym class at school and while she was out she was laying tummy up on the floor when another child tripped and fell on her. This began a serious of terrifying events for Lilly and her family. When she got home from school she immediately started vomiting. Mom thought it was yet again another flu bug, but was a bit concerned that her tummy was very hard. All night Lilly continued to vomit on and off and was complaining of pain in her abdomen. The next morning Saturday March 2nd she was taken in to the Almonte General Hospital and it was suspected she ruptured her spleen, she was hypertensive and in excruciating pain.

Lilly was then rushed by ambulance to CHEO where they performed blood work an ultrasound, X-rays and inserted an NG tube to help pump the contents of her stomach out. Her bowels were backing up into her stomach. It was the CT scan that confirmed a large mass approximately 20 cm in size attached to her kidney. Lilly has a condition that no one knew of until that moment. She had a horseshoe kidney, meaning her kidneys did not separate as they usually do and they remained joined. Lilly remained at CHEO as the many teams discussed her condition. On the Monday March 4th it was decided that the radiologist at CHEO did not feel confident in performing a biopsy on the mass and the teams immediately contacted the doctors at Sick Kids in Toronto where they felt confident they could help Lilly. On Monday evening Lilly and her Mom were air lifted to Sick Kids in Toronto.

Lilly was put under general anesthetic and a biopsy was performed on Wednesday March 6th. Fast forward 1 week later, Lilly’s pain was better managed with hydromorphone and Tylenol and she was feeling better every day in the meantime the family was anxiously awaiting the results of the mass. Praying it wasn’t the C word. Results were inconclusive, although they were able to tell the family that Lilly had cancer but they were unsure of what type of cancer it was. Some cells indicated Wilms with a stroma component, synovial cell carcinoma but spindle cells were present which indicates it could be sarcoma or renal cell carcinoma. There were also genetic components that were present and a gene SS18. The tissue has been sent to another lab (Hopkins) in Toronto for further testing.

On Friday March 15th the doctors felt that they could wait no longer and started chemotherapy for Lilly as they await the results on the tissue sample.  The plan at this point is to wait two weeks and they will do another CT scan to see if the tumor has shrunk. If the chemo has no effect they will do surgery to remove the tumor and try and save as much of her left kidney as possible.

Lilly is 9 years old she loves playing the piano, she loves cats especially her cat Cinder. She also has a special interest in wildlife and nature.  

Her family was not expecting this and I want to take away the worry of the financial burden this will have on their family as they continue treatment so far from home.

If you would like to email Jodi a donation directly, please do at [email redacted]

I honestly can't thank you enough for your support!

Thank you!

Kelly