Austėja

Our Austėja was born in the spring of 2006 and grew up as a healthy and creative little girl. She has been an unusually charismatic, attentive to others and agile child. Like an adult, she has her own opinion, but is thoughtful and sensitive to other people’s beliefs. Although sometimes a show-off, she is a very sweet girl. One day her carefree childhood was invaded by a malignant disease...

 

On the 4^th of October, 2010, we noticed a lump in our daughter’s belly. We hurried to the hospital where the doctors consoled us that it might be an overturned intestine and sent us for echoscopy. The screening revealed a tumor of 10x15 cm in Austėja’s abdomen, on top of her kidney. We were shocked. With eyes full of tears we hurried from Klaipėda to Santariškės to find out the exact diagnosis. The terrible news devastated us: our daughter was diagnosed with stage IV Wilms’ tumor (nephroblastoma) of the left kidney with metastasis in her lungs... Our world turned upside down. The long treatment started with six-week chemotherapy course, followed by a surgery. After two weeks of chemotherapy the tumor shrank to 6x9 cm and we were happy with the results. Four more weeks later the CT scan showed that the tumor shrank to 5x7 cm, and that two of four metastases in her lungs were gone, but two new ones came out in another place. On the 22^nd of November, 2010, the tumor was removed together with the kidney during a radical surgery. After a week in the surgical unit we returned to continue our treatment in the oncohematology unit. We started an intense course of chemotherapy (every 19 days). We also had 10 days of radiotherapy in between sessions of chemo.

 

On the 27^th of January, 2011, our little one survived another surgery. The CT scan showed three metastases in her lungs. During the surgery the doctors found and removed two of them. After the surgery we spent a few days in the surgical unit and returned to the oncohematology unit for another course of chemotherapy. After the well-tolerated treatment the last metastasis in Austėja’s left lung was gone. It was happy news for us. Austėja received another 10 days of radiotherapy. We hoped that the treatment would be over by then, but instead we spent a long time in the hospital... Our treatment lasted for 32 more weeks (chemotherapy was given every 21 days). Austėja’s blood counts fell very low and rose very slowly. Usually, once they started to rise, it was time for another chemo... Her blood counts were almost down to zero. Thank God that after all the treatment, that ended on the 18^th of August, 2011, we managed to defeat the disease. The removed kidney location looks fine; there are two spots of scarred tissue in the lungs and a 7.8 mm strip of liquid in the pleura, which, the doctor says, should dissolve by itself without affecting Austėja’s life quality.

 

We have finally gotten well... We THANK God for helping us while we kept our faith in our ability to defeat the illness. Little by little, our daughter is coming back to life, now growing her hair and eyelashes...