Help Elem to fight Retinoblastoma

My name is Elem. I was born on 22.02.2022 - the date that always makes the border guards smile when they see my passport.

When I was three months old, my mom and dad noticed something in my left eye just by chance.

The MRI showed that a big revolution was taking place in my left eye, and when I went for the first investigation in Switzerland, the revolution had a name - Retinoblastoma.

Retinoblastoma - is eye cancer. The tumor sizes were large, type D-E. My parents made the decision for me to undergo treatment in Lausanne, Switzerland, in two clinics HOJG and CHUV. In the first, Professor Francis Munier takes care of my eyes: he measures the tumor, asks it to go away, argues why it is necessary to go away. And in CHUV I was administered 4 chemotherapy courses. Two general ones, which I endured ok, except that in the second one I had thrombocytopenia and because there were no platelets at the hospital at the time, I was given blood and plasma by transfusion.

And two arterials. Arterial chemotherapy is a magical thing, a microcatheter is inserted through the artery of the leg - a kind of machine that carries injections to the eye. The first went ok, but the second not so much. My body rejected that little machine and created a thrombus, which traveled to my brain and caused me some discomfort. I stayed in the intensive care unit for 4 days. After which they gave me a month of aspirin and anticonvulsants for four months.

I didn't let myself be beaten. (I don't really talk, but I action - I'm a Pisces after all :)

In December, the parents find out that wasn't all. Even if the tumor shows no signs of life, we are to come every month for a year. Max, a family friend, told the parents that "it takes one village to raise a child" and that fundraising is needed to extend the treatment in Switzerland. So they did

t and Thanks for your help.

After a year of treatments and investigations, the tumor returns. Mom says she came back to teach us to lose, so we can learn to get up and win. Dad says that people only change when they come face to face with illness or death. I believe both of them, they are talking about the same things just in different ways. They are so funny and I think they love me so much that I am writing this :).

There are at least 3 more arterial chemos, treatments, investigations, cryotherapy and lots of hope that we are all in good hands.

And one day we will definitely win. And the victory will be a common one: mine, my parents', relatives', our friends' and all those who have been with us!