As you may know, this is my eigth year shaving my head on behalf of the St. Baldrick's Foundation. For several years I indicated that it would be my last year, but every year I would meet new patients, and knew that would return again, because the kids still need our help. This year I am shaving on behalf of two very special patients. ________________________________________________________________________________________ The first is Emily Tovar. Emily is a 3rd grader at St. Pius V School and enjoys math and reading. She has two brothers Israel (12) and Paul Michael (8). In her free time Emily plays Soccer at a competitive level. In March of 2007, Emily woke up one morning with a headache and a bloody nose. Her nose was bleeding pretty bad and after 30 minutes she was rushed to the ER. The ER doctor was able to stop the bleeding and suggested they see the ENT specialist to get the vein in her nose cauterized. A couple days passed and Emily was not feeling 100% and they returned to the doctor. They were sent to get blood work and that same night we were transported to UIC Medical Center for further test, which came back abnormal. Later that afternoon it was confirmed that she had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Emily is currently in maintenance and has monthly chemo and respiratory treatments. Her mom says that Emily is by far the bravest person she knows. When she is scheduled for spinal tests she doesn't cry or complain, she gets in that zone and takes whatever is handed to her. Mom believes a lot of her strength comes from her caregivers. Her nurses and doctors are amazing with her. Although her cancer is in remission she is currently in the hospital suffering from, acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute renal failure. On February 28th, her brothers shaved in her honor at UIC Medical Center: ________________________________________________________________________________________ The second patient's name is Josephina. She is a 19 month old little girl who was healthy until Christmas, 2008. Paul Kent, MD, one of the pediatric oncologists at Rush Medical Center evaluated a a tumor in her left neck. On 2/5/09 she had the tumor biopsied and the surgeon was able to remove 2/3 of it. She was discharged home with a diagnosis of neuroblastoma . Her parents were told that if this was found to be limited to her neck and the tumor cells were biologically favorable she might not need any other treatment and she would have a 90% chance of a cure. The only way to know for sure was for the parents to consent to enroll her on the COG Neuroblastoma Biology Clinical Trial which was open at UIC - her mother agreed to participate in the clinical trial. To make a long and harrowing story short, from 2/12-2/19/09 the tumor tripled in size, grew through the base of her skull, began pushing on the brain and began causing her tremendous problems with her breathing and her neurologic status. At that point she was sedated in a coma and on a ventilator to try to prevent her from suffering a cardiac or respiratory arrest. On Friday (2/20/09) they learned that this was not neuroblastoma and her doctors therefore drastically altered their chemotherapy plans. After discussing her case with numerous doctors, we began giving chemotherapy on Friday night (2/20/09) and prayed with the family that the tumor would stop growing and possibly shrink. By Wednesday (2/25/09) the tumor had shrunk by 30%, the child was taken off of the ventilator and woke up to smile at her parents on their shared birthday! By this afternoon the tumor has shrunk by 75% which was beyond her doctors' wildest dreams! Obviously she has a long way to go but our hopes are much, much higher than they were only 1 week ago. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Please donate to this very important cause, to ensure that we will have more success stories as the years go on. Your support means so much to these kids, and all the children in treatment for cancer. Thank you!