Saturday, October 10, 2009

Heavy heart this morning..

Vincent & Sofi Villacci

After Sammie Hartsfield's passing yesterday(12yro girl that had bone cancer) I read a Jennifer Villacci's post on her son Vincent who was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma. Here it is...


This week has not been very good. As you know from earlier posts, Vincent had been throwing up and had been in a lot of pain. The throwing up stopped but the pain continued and when we came to the hospital on wednesday to get ready to start chemo, they decided they wanted to do scans to rule out things that could be causing the pain and nausea. In a million years, we were not prepared for what they told us. The cancer has spread to Vincent's brain. It is coating the meninges on his brain and he has all the symptoms of a person with meningitis. (meningitis would be a much better diagnosis). The pain in his legs is caused by the pressure on his brain (same with the nausea).This is extremely rare and very few Doctors have dealt with this type of progression of rhabdo to the brain when everything else is looking good. They admitted Vincent to ICU on wednesday because of the pressure on the brain. The pressure is like a time bomb that can cause major problems if not relieved. They began steroids wednesday to relieve the pressure. They began a new protocol of chemo last night that has shown promise in reaching brain tumors. He will take that for 5 days and then will begin radiation on his brain and spinal cord. The hope is that he can make it to the radiation to give him a fighting chance at getting the tumor. We are still in shock. At some level, we knew that this was something that could happen but we just felt like he was responding so well that we felt like he would ultimately be a survivor. The Doctors had previously said he had a 10-15% chance at survival. Now, they are saying he has a 0% chance but I found one patient who survived this type of mestasis and that is all I need to not give up hope. The Doctors told us that Vincent needs a miracle and a miracle doesn't come in the form of a drug. Only God can truly heal Vincent and we are praying with all of our might that he will be the miracle and will be feeling better soon and will ultimately be a survivor. Vincent is resting comfortably and the steroids that they gave him to relieve the pressure seem to be working because he is not having the pain he was having. We have not given up hope, our faith is strong and we are looking to God to carry Vincent and us through this journey. Please pray for a miracle, Sofi needs her big brother and we need our little boy.
Please pray for Vincent and his family. He needs a miracle from Heaven now.

2 comments:

Lund7 said...

Do they have a blog I could go to? I am keeping that family in my prayers.

Mama Bear said...

Oh my gosh, I am literally sitting here crying for this sweet little boy. Saying so many prayers that God keeps him in his arms and gives him a chance at life. I am sooooo very sorry. If they have a family blog, I too would like to follow or could you update on his progress?