Stood up to Cancer

Hello everyone, my son Salvatore A. Maugere Jr. was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma cancer tumor in December 2014.  After several bouts with high blood pressure and a rapid heart beat, a trip St Josephs Children’s Hospital in Tampa from high school when his blood pressure spiked over 220, he underwent testing to find what was causing the bp spikes and after almost the entire month of December trying to find what was wrong, the tech doing an ultra sound on his kidneys found a tumor.  Turned out to be a neuroblastoma tumor.  Sal Jr named the tumor “Herbert” and the doctors surgically removed the grapefruit sized tumor in a 7 hour surgery and in January 2015 “Herbert” after being sent to several different Dr’s around the country for testing, stage one neuroblastoma was the end result.

Sal Jr’s recovery has been amazing he was able to make up three months of school work and is moving on to be a senior this coming year and will be able to graduate with his twin sister Suzi.  Finally putting on weight and becoming more active he can do so much more with confidence and more stamina than before.  Being told he had cancer didn’t phase him a bit, took what he was told, researched it himself and made the decisions on what to do real easy and informed.  Every three months he has to go through body scans, mri’s and occasional bone marrow tests, each one he actually looks forward to doing to be sure he remains cancer free.   

Sal Jr is my hero and inspiration, at no time did he feel down or depressed about having this tumor, he just wanted it out and go back to normal playing his games and doing his best at everything.  I am humbled by all the love and support of family and friends.    

Thank you very much for your love, prayers and any support is greatly appreciated, will keep posting with his progress as we travel this road.  

Update: As of 10/17/16 Cancer free and remaining hopeful for the future.