McKenna Maiorana was born November 15, 2008 at 1:15 p.m. She was a healthy, happy baby. Her first year of life was so beautiful and easy. She had all her well baby visits and was hitting all her developmental milestones on time or even ahead of schedule. She never had "sick" day visit until December 2009. McKenna threw up twice in one day, which wasn't normal for her healthy self. Her pediatrician palpated her stomach and looked her over and diagnosed her with her first ear infection. She was sent home with antibiotics and she had no more symptoms until February 2010. Her parents started noticing she wasn't eating as much as she used to, was constipated, and her activity level was lower and lower. They began adding water to her milk, giving her suppositories, and constipation remedies. McKenna's stomach became harder and harder and then began to distend. Then on February 12, 2010, she woke up gagging and choking and that's when her mom knew something was very wrong. Her breath smelled feces and she was extremely pale and her little stomach was hard as a rock and was completely distended. They rushed her to the ER and xrays were taking. That's when they saw a huge mass on her left kidney. She was then taken to have a CT scan of her abdomen. The CT confirmed McKenna had a large mass on her left kidney but it was so big it was laying down on her lungs and was beginning to wrap around her aortic valve. The doctors performed a biopsy on it and took a sample of her bone marrow to biopsy as well. On February 12, 2010, McKenna was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma. This is an aggressive form of cancer often found in children 2 years or under. Stage 4 means McKenna's cancer had spread from the tumor in her left kidney to the bone in her right leg, femur in the right leg, the skull behind her right eye, and her bone marrow. McKenna was giving a 30%-50% success rate of beating the disease. McKenna had her first dose of chemotherapy on February 15. Since the tumor was pressing on her lungs, she had to be ventilated and put in the PICU. She would stay there for the next 2 months. She would be transfered to a trachea instead of being intubated almost a month after being diagnosed. After the first 2 rounds of chemo, McKenna's tumors in her skull, behind her eye, and in her jaw were gone! On April 20, McKenna had her trachea removed! On May 28, her main tumor had shrunk 80.2%! On June 7, she had a 7.5 hour surgery to remove 97% of the remaining tumor. It was removed in sections the largest piece was the size of a softball and then there were 2 golf ball sized pieces as well as other small pieces. July 22, McKenna had no tumors except for her main tumor! On July 29, she was admitted and started her autologous stem cell transplant. McKenna's stem cells were put back in her August 6! September 13, she started radiation! September 24, McKenna got her first central line infection. October 22, she had her last radiation treatment! Scans showed her main tumor was half the size it was in July and was less active! She had her firs infusion of immunotherapy on November 8! It was taken over a 10 hours period but it could take u to 20 if she has a reaction. It is extremely painful. On November 10, McKenna started having diarrhea and tested positive for C-diff. C-diff is very common and only needs antibiotics. McKenna has had her first ound of immunotherapy and is dong well!
Hope for Baby McKenna!
Happy Birthday, baby girl!
Keep fighting!
It will be over soon!
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