Beatriz is an old soul.
Everybody has said that about her since literally the day she was born.
I'm sure all parents say this, well actually I know parents don't say this, but she's as
close to the perfect baby as possible.
She just made life really easy.
Didn't cry, didn't fuss, just happy-go-lucky
just smiles 24-7, just everything that you would want your baby to be.
That was her.
I was in the room when she was born, so it was just incredible.
We started to notice the she was a little lethargic, she wasn't eating quite as
much, but she was still always really positive and she was always very happy
and she was always very social with everybody.
When we did notice something was wrong we called the
doctor immediately and we went and said hey, her stomach looks a little inflamed
her energy level's a little lower than normal.
When we went to the pediatrician, he kind of just did an overall exam
and was feeling her stomach, but she was 13
months old at that time so she was wiggling around she didn't want to be
touched and he couldn't really get it, and he said since this has been
going on for so long
let's go ahead and do an ultrasound.
We actually got a call to come back to the office and at that moment I asked my husband
do you want me to call my mom and do you want me to let her know that we're going back.
I got the phone call at around two o'clock, two-thirty that afternoon and I
picked it up and I heard my daughter's voice and I already knew something was wrong.
Normally the nurses are "Hi, hey, hi Beatriz" and like it was just quiet.
They said go on back, he's waiting for you guys.
The doctor saw the mass somewhere in the back. He said it could possibly be on
her kidneys, it could be possibly somewhere it's just behind some of her
major organs in front so we can't exactly tell, we just know it's very large.
He said we've already called Valley Children's Hospital and they are waiting for you guys.
They're expecting you guys, so go home, pack a bag and go straight down there,
they're waiting for you guys, they are expecting you.
I'm sure everybody who says it's the first time they're going to Valley Children's says
where are we going?
And the moment we will make that bend, it's this giant colorful building
and I just thought okay, this is for real.
When we got to the Hospital, the minute we walked in, I just felt this peace.
Dr. O met us.
Beatriz had an ultrasound of her abdomen which showed
that most of one of her kidneys had been replaced by what looked like tumor.
In children, especially children her age,
the most common reason for that is a kind of tumor called a Wilms' tumor.
It hurts extremely as a grandparent. I can't imagine as a parent
what they went through, what my daughter and her husband, my son-in-law went through.
They took her blood pressure and I remember one of the doctors saying
her blood pressure like 240 something. We can't even believe this baby is, you know,
even here and then two minutes later they took her up to intensive care and
that's where the journey began.
They worked over the weekend to get her blood pressure down to
wherever it is that they needed it and Monday the 31st of March she had her
tumor taken out. The tumor was actually so large that it fused to the top of her diaphragm
so it theoretically came out in one piece but they kind of had to scrape the
tumor from her diaphragm
so they could not guarantee that all the cells were gone.
Unfortunately Beatriz would have to go through radiation and chemotherapy.
My heart just
just broke at that moment, just knowing what she was going to go through because I've
been through chemo so I knew. And it was just really hard to be strong for my daugher.
But as a mom, she just stood by B's side and she was our strength there
for a long time, she was so focused and making sure that Beatriz was
taken care of and she was there by her side every minute of every day while she was there.
She is very, she's well wise beyond her age. She may be a future doctor.
She has been a great patient, she's been healing very
well and her one kidney that's left over
it is growing very, very well based on the tests that were done today and she
herself is growing and developing. She is growing in height,
she is very, very energetic and she herself is recovering quite well.
Being cancer-free was something actually we're looking forward to. It was never like, okay here's
the big day, it was this is the end of chemo. On this particular day she got the
shirt that says no chemo.
It makes you appreciate life a little bit more and
your kids and just makes everything else and all the other problems everyday
problems just makes them look a lot smaller and not as important as what's
really important, which is your health and your family.
Beatriz today is amazing, just the same way she started and nobody ever
even thinks that she was sick.
I think that it brought us all closer together as a family. No, I don't think, I know.
I know that it brought us all closer together as a family and it
made us appreciate having her because we could have not.