RC's Neuroblastoma Fight

When RC was born, we knew immediately he was a special guy. He was our surprise miracle baby, after five years of infertility and a medically risky pregnancy, and he had beaten all the odds. When he was diagnosed with moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and needed hearing aids at two months old, again he started outperforming every benchmark his specialists set for him, wearing his aids without complaint and growing his verbal skills in leaps and bounds.

On September 25, 2017, we found out our precious RC has stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma. His only symptoms were a daily fever and some difficulty/reluctance to move. We were lucky enough to land in the emergency room at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia two weeks after his symptoms began, and had a diagnosis within three days. His treatment began September 30.

RC has a long and difficult road ahead of him. He can expect nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and blood in his urine, among a host of other side effects from his chemotherapy. After five rounds of chemo he will have major surgery to remove the largest tumor. Then he'll receive radiation, more high-dose chemo, and antibody therapy. Total treatment time is close to a year and a half.

During this time, RC will need his Mama with him as much as possible. Mama, our sole breadwinner, will need time away from work, during which she has elected to be paid only part of her hours in paid time off. The money we raise will help with bills (both home-related and medical) and allow RC and his parents to face his cancer together for as long as it takes to get him well. We are hopeful that RC will once again beat the odds set against him and be victorious against neuroblastoma!