Help Baby Allison Beat Cancer

Allison was born on October 16th, 2022. That same day, she was diagnosed with infantile neuroblastoma. Cancer.

Allison's parents are my dear friends and I'm running this fundraiser on their behalf. Nick, Allison's father, is on unpaid family leave until the end of the year, and Ashley, Allison's mother, is a social worker who isn't presently working. They need all the help they can get. Nick and Ashley are two of the best people you could ever hope to meet, and they are already amazing parents to Allison's older sister.

The good news is that infantile neuroblastoma is treatable and Allison's chances are good; the doctors are saying "when" not "if." The bad news is that our healthcare system has put a tremendous, unforeseeable burden on her family.

The goal of 10k will go toward the cost of Allison's medical care, care for Allison's sister, and bills and miscellaneous expenses that lost wages would otherwise cover. Anything helps, and anything above the set goal will also go toward these needs.

Here's the story from Allison's mother:

We would like to introduce our daughter, Allison June Montes. It is with the heaviest heart that I write these words -- my baby has cancer.

Born October 16th at 5:50am via emergency cesarean, she weighed a perfect 7lbs 8oz and 19.75" long. Upon her exit from my body it was immediately obvious to the physicians that she was very sick. She was not shown to me or Nick in the operating room as is normal with a typical c-section, we were instead informed from around the curtain that she had a mass in her belly, spots all over her skin, and was being transported via ambulance to Detroit Children's Hospital NICU. I was able to see Allison for about an hour before she was transported, but was not able to hold her. Nick followed the ambulance and I stayed inpatient at the Wyandotte hospital.

We were informed that evening that Allison has cancer. Over the next several days she had many tests including biopsies of bone marrow, adrenal glands, and skin lesions, ultrasounds, MRI, and more blood tests than I could ever count. From those tests we were given a diagnosis; Allison has infantile neuroblastoma stage 4 Special. The tumors and cancer cells are in her liver, skin, adrenal glands, and bone marrow. She is scheduled 10/26 for an additional imaging test to determine the full extent of the metastasis. She is in tremendous amounts of pain that is thankfully now being controlled with a morphine drip and a barbiturate as needed. She started chemotherapy on 10/22 and the treatment sent her little body into a spiral; she experienced multiple emergencies that evening including heart arrhythmia, labored breathing, and low oxygen saturation. She is now intubated on a ventilator to allow her body to rest. She is receiving blood labs every 12hrs to monitor the condition of her heart and her ability to remove waste from her system as the tumor cells die rapidly, this is an improvement from when she received blood labs every 8hrs.

Now that the tumor lysis syndrome is controlled and her pain is again well managed, I am so happy to share that Allison has been awake and alert. At 1 week old she appears to have the same big brown eyes as her sister. She loves to hear me sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She enjoys looking at the drawings Laura has made for her that are hanging around her isolette. She has learned the sound of the room door opening means that someone new is about to walk up to her bed, so now she sometimes opens her eyes to look toward the door when she hears it. Allison is in a special pressurized airlock room with two sets of doors, only one door can be open at a time and the air pressure in the room keeps the hallway air from entering. She is immunocompromised because of the chemotherapy and so we must take great precautions to ensure her safety, her life depends on it. We must remain masked at all times, all family members who are assisting in caring for Laura during this time must also be diligent to not pass any illnesses to Laura to ensure that Nick and I won't need to quarantine from either of our girls.

The physicians are telling us that Allison's prognosis is good. We have been told by a few people that infantile neuroblastoma is the cancer we would want to choose if we had the unfortunate task of choosing a cancer for our daughter. We have been told that if Allison and her condition respond well to the chemotherapy that we may be looking at bringing her home in 5 or so weeks, after her second round of chemotherapy. She will need to be readmitted to the NICU for each additional round of chemo and the days of observation afterwards, but then once stable will again be discharged home. She should be looking at receiving anywhere from 2 to 6 rounds of chemo, with 21 days between each round.

We have an incredibly long and difficult road ahead of us, but we are endlessly hopeful for good things. There are no words to describe the heartache Nick, our families, and I have felt these past 11 days, but we are so grateful to have each other to lean on. Our goal as a family is for someone to be at the hospital with Allison 24/7 and we have been rocking that goal thus far. Nick and I are now the only ones permitted to stay overnight and the biggest trouble with that is that we also feel the need to stay all day. Nick, both our mothers, and I have each had occurrences of staying at the NICU in Allison's windowless room for over 24hrs. I hear the alarm bells of her monitors going off in my head even when I'm away. I'm constantly wondering if she's in pain, if she is silently crying because the intubation keeps her from being able to use her voice. I can't stop from putting myself in her place, empathizing with her physical agony, with her emotional pain, with her confusion, with her yearning to eat, with her desire to be held and comforted by her mother. I have held my daughter twice in her 11 days outside of my body. She has consumed 19mls of breastmilk during that time, about the same as a tablespoon. The pain we are all experiencing is indescribable, just pure agony.

Despite the tremendous lows, I am starting to allow myself to think toward the day when we can bring her home, the day she can finally meet her sister. My mind has been racing nonstop thinking of how to best sanitize and prepare for this delicate bundle to finally leave the NICU and what we must do in the meantime to ensure we do not pass any germs to her while she is hospitalized. We intend to hire help to thoroughly clean our house top to bottom including the air ducts. We want to provide the most sterile environment we can both for her general status as immunocompromised as well as to protect the internal jugular central line in her chest that could potentially infect her heart if mishandled.

Many people who have already heard our news have asked how they can help. We appreciate each and every person who has extended their well wishes, words of encouragement, and offers of assistance. Nick will be off of work on FMLA until further notice which unfortunately is unpaid. I'm trying to not worry yet about what all of her medical bills will look like despite us having insurance. We have plenty of food at this time and all routine tasks around the house have been delegated. I am putting this information forward because I know people will ask, if you would like to offer us gifts we will not turn you down. We just ask please no flowers.

I hope it goes without saying that we are just truly overwhelmed and some moments are far worse than others. If you send us a message or give us a call, please don't be offended if we do not get back with you right away. We are so often busy discussing Allison's care with her NICU team, attempting to provide some normal family time for Laura, napping at odd hours of the day, or even simply struggling to stay afloat and have little desire to talk in that moment. But sincerely, all of the support is appreciated and all of the messages are read.

I really don't know what else to say. Just please keep little Allie in your thoughts, send her all the encouragement and strength. We are so hopeful that this will someday be just a distant nightmare, but in the meantime it is very much real and terrifying. Thank you all for being our friends and our support system during this awful time of our lives. I hope to share more good Alliebaby updates with you soon.