ABOUT OUR CAUSE

Nora's journey: In March 2022 Nora became ill with a cough that would not go away, and progressively kept getting worse. We took her in to Urgent Care on March 14 with thoughts that she had either pneumonia or bronchitis, and needed some antibiotics. She received a chest x-ray that day, and we were sent home with a diagnosis of pneumonia, antibiotics, and nebulizer treatments. We then received the radiologist's report which suggested suspicion of an abnormal growth in Nora's chest. It was recommended by radiology to have a follow up CT scan. The following day, we were told it was most likely a swollen lymph node from the pneumonia and to continue the antibiotics and repeat the chest x-ray in one week. On March 17, we decided to go to Children's Hospital in St Paul, MN for a second opinion. They repeated the chest x-ray and confirmed that there was a large mass in Nora's chest that should not be there. They then sent us from St Paul Children's to Minneapolis Children's to be directly admitted to the oncology unit to find out what we were dealing with. They told us that of course they couldn't be sure that it was cancer at that point, but that oncology was the place to start to sort things out. They drew lab work and took a urine sample from Nora that night. The following morning, she had a sedated CT scan. The night of March 18, it was confirmed by the CT scan and lab results that we were looking at Neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer. They were unable to tell us any more at that point as far as if it had spread, what stage, or what treatment would be needed. We were discharged home on March 18 and scheduled for follow up visits and testing the following week. Test results showed that the cancer had thankfully not spread to other areas of the body yet, but she would need surgery to remove the tumor, as this is the best treatment available at this time for Neuroblastoma. Nora had surgery on March 29 to remove the majority of the tumor, however they were not able to remove 100% due to its location and being too close to the spine. Nora will continue to need sedated MRI's every 2-3 months for at least one year to monitor the remaining tumor for any growth, along with lab work to watch the cancer levels in her body. After one year, she will continue to need monitoring for a total of 3-5 years, and they will determine what type of surveillance they will use following the first year. If her cancer begins to grow back, she will need to begin chemotherapy and would most likely need another surgery, and then start the whole monitoring process over again.