I'm shaving my head to raise money for childhood cancer research in the name of Samantha Harrall.
Please take a look at the following write up that provides a great story of success with Samantha.

8/27/12 – Samantha, 14 months old, had a cold for a week – nothing unusual but since it has been hanging on, I took her to her doctor. She diagnosed her with croup & an ear infection . She decided against doing a chest x-ray to prevent unnecessary exposure to radiation.
8/28/12 – Samantha’s doctor called me and said she had thought about Samantha all night and thinks we should get a chest x-ray because she heard a wheeze when she had examined her the day before. X-ray showed something in or behind her lung
8/29/12 – checked into the hospital E.R. to get CT scan under sedation. Here she is in the E.R.

8/29/12 - Surgeon looked @ CT scan & was leaning towards pulmonary sequesterian - tissue on lung that has a blood supply & is likely benign. Surgery scheduled for 8/30/12 to confirm what it is & if confirmed, they will remove it & she will be fine.
8/30/12 – Samantha undergoes an MR before surgery. Surgeon wants another MRI and we’re told the oncologist is going to come see us after the MRI. Oncologist?!?!?!? We hand Samantha off to the MRI technician and crumble onto the floor in the hallway sobbing because we now know this isn’t something simple. After consulting with the oncologist, we are told it’s likely a Neuroblastoma tumor. Our doctor came to the hospital and she gets us in touch with the oncologist from Children’s Hospital Oakland.
8/31/12 – we decide we will have her treated in Oakland and begin the task of packing everything up to go to Oakland for what we’re told could be months.
9/3/12 Samantha at home over the weekend before we go to Oakland:


9/4/12 – we head to Oakland and check into the hospital.
9/5/12 – Samantha undergoes surgery to get biopsy and insert line in her chest. Tumor shows cancerous cells, it is a Neuroblastoma – the tumor is attached to her esophogus, lung, large vein & heart but have to wait for staging and histology before we start treatment.
9/13/12 – still don’t have stage of tumor or histology, we are sent home to Sparks to await the results.
9/14/12 – Samantha has Stage III Neuroblastoma tumor with no nMyc amplification (good news) and a favorable histology. She will require 4 rounds of chemo and possibly surgery.

9/18/12 – return to Oakland for 3 days for chemotherapy. The drive from Sparks to Oakland was tough because of the unknown ahead of us. We signed authorization form for the chemo and watched as the nurse put on protective gear to start the chemo through the IV. We are beside ourselves that we are having to put this poison in our 14 month old daughter’s body. She tolerates the treatment well and we are discharged home 9/21/12.
Samantha 9/19/12 during her hospital stay:


Samantha has another round of chemo in early October and next chemo set for 10/31/12 but Samantha’s counts were too low to go for treatment.
Happy to be home instead of the hospital on 10/31/12:

Samantha had her final round of chemo11/23/12 – 11/25/12:


12/18/12 returned to Oakland for a MIBG scan on 12/19/12
Samantha near our hotel on 12/18/12:

12/26/12 – we find out that the chemo has detached the tumor from her heart but it’s still attached to her lung and a large vein.
1/2/13 – Samantha has surgery in Oakland to remove the tumor and she is cancer free!
1/2/14 - ONE YEAR cancer free
1/2/15 - TWO YEARS cancer free