Pennies for Penny
I told you all last week about my infant cousin, Penelope who was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma. Well, I got to go visit her yesterday and so I wanted to share an update with you.
From what her mommy & daddy tell me, Penny bumped her head last week. A few days later, she developed these terrible black eyes. So they had her into the doctor and suspected she must have it it really hard, or maybe there was a bleeding disorder going on. A few different thoughts on it. Well, when her eyes didn’t clear up, the doctor had them take her to the emergency room. I guess they thought maybe something was broken.
They spent a long time at the ER having cat scans done to look for breaks or something to explain the back eyes. Several hours later, a doctor pulled the screen and told them that they had found “something” on the cat scan. He told them right then that he thought it was neuroblastoma.
Penny was admitted to the hospital where my cousin’s life changed.
I suppose if you want to find the silver lining here it would be that less than 5% of these cases present in the face with the black eyes. If her eyes hadn’t done that, they would still not even know she was sick. And because they were able to discover and diagnose the cancer before her 1st birthday, it makes treating it that much better. Even still, her prognoses for complete recovery is only 60%.
My beautiful cousin went from being a doting mother of a perfect 11 month old, to being worried sick for her child.
Poor sweet Penny has gone from being a rambunctious little thing with an Italian appetite, to being lethargic and quiet.
Seeing her yesterday broke my heart.
This isn’t fair. Penny was a planned baby, very wanted and so loved by a HUGE family. For this to happen to her just isn’t fair!
I got the privilege of creating a website for Penny. There will hopefully be some content on there in the next couple days. Her dad is currently writing up the past weeks events and we’ll have them posted soon. As you can imagine, he’s a little busy right now.
There will be a paypal account created for Penny and her care. Currently, their insurance will only cover 60% of her treatments. That leaves a lot to be made up. Penny will have chemo on a weekly basis and who knows what kind of surgeries will be in her future.
I hope you feel compelled to bookmark her site and continue to pray for her healing and her parents strength.
Rhea thanks for posting this I had been wondering How Penny was doing. Bookmarked Penny’s Page ! I will be looking for the Donate Button to come up ! I will be donating. When you see your family again please give them a hug from me and a kiss that sweet baby girl!
*teary eyed* I keep on praying for your your cousin and comfort too for each and every one in the family. It must really be very hard but let’s all cling to the Lord. I have posted it on my twitter and I gave them this link for them to understand what happened.
Thank you for sharing this very touching story with us. Keep us posted on Penny and our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Thanks for the update on Penny. I had already joined “Pennies for Penny” on Facebook and posted about it on my wall for all of my friends to read and to say prayers for her and hopefully donate money once that info is available. I’ve had several friends already become a “fan” of Pennies for Penny and I know they will help out. I was just looking at her pictures last night that they had on her site and she is just so adorable and looks so healthy in the pics. Like I said before I just don’t understand why God does this to babies and little children. But maybe God was trying to help and intervene when he gave her the black eyes and she was diagnosed early. I just hope and pray that she is cured completely and that thru donations, and maybe the hospital staff, that her parents won’t have to suffer too much financially in order to save their sweet baby. I know that Valley Children’s Hospital, which is in Central California, about an hour from my house, they will help parents whose insurance doesn’t cover the entire bill. The hospital uses monies they receive from donations to pay the patient’s portion of the bill so they don’t have to lose everything to keep their child alive. Maybe the hospital Penny is being treated at will have a program similar to the one here in Central California.
Hi Rhea,
Your niece is definitely in my thoughts. I was waiting for an update from you. I just visited the link you posted and made a small donation. It wasn’t much but I know every bit helps.
I will also help by spreading the word about Penny’s site!
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Thank You, Stefani! SO much
I am so sad and sorry to hear about Penny. Her family should apply for medicaide. Even if her parents aren’t eligble she may be.
[...] mentioned my cousin’s 11 month old daughter, Penelope. She has been recently diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Penny’s insurance is only [...]
[...] girl to the Dr. and then several hours later being hit with that kind of news. According to Rhea, the “good news” is that Penny’s Neuroblastoma presented itself in the eyes which [...]