Royce battle againt Atrt Cancer

Hello my name is Rossy, the mom of Royce, and on Monday September 11th 2023 I remember being on the phone with my family letting them know what the doctors had told us "They found a 6cm tumor next to Royce’s cerebellum which most likely is..." as hard as I tried the word "cancer" wouldn't come out. Never did I imagine the words "my son" and "cancer" would be in the same sentence. Our little boy Royce who was then only 13 months old already having such a big battle ahead of him.

On 09/12/23 he went through his first surgery, a 12 hour surgery to try and remove the whole tumor. Unfortunately the surgeon was unable to remove all of the tumor. A biopsy was sent to determine what type of cancer it was and two weeks later we got the results back, it was a cancer known as Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor (ATRT).

ATRT is a very rare, very aggressive fast growing childhood malignancies of the central nervous system. It usually found in the cerebellum or brain stem. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that controls movement, balance, posture, attention, language, memory and emotional process. The brain stem controls breathing, heart rate, and the nerves and muscles used in seeing, hearing, walking, talking, and eating. ATRT can also arise in the spinal cord

They gave us the treatment plan of 2 rounds of chemo, another surgery, 3 rounds of intense chemo with bonemarrow transplant and radiation. They told us he has a 50/50 survival rate if all the treatments are succesful and things go as planned.

He had his second surgery on December 02, 2023 which was 15 hours and this time they did remove almost all of it, he started his Bonemarrow transplant phase on December 24 and now we are a couple months away from going miles away for his radiation treatment.

Our baby boy's life has changed from one day to another. Now he is in a room fighting to get his own life back.

Our 5 year old boy had to move in with grandma not fully understing why. Not knowing why mom, baby brother and dad weren't coming home.

I had to stop working and attending school to help ease this battle my baby is facing in the hospital, as of right now im his biggest comfort and if he’s not in my arms then hes not happy.

Dad has had to miss days of work to be present in the most hardest and important days. Driving back and forth from home to the hospital and having to pay bridges

If you would like to aid and support our little family in this difficult time it will be greatly appreciated anything goes along way, with mothly bills, gas, groceries, bridges, housing for the days/weeks we can not go back home. That way we can have one less worry. If you would like to follow Royce on his journey I will be posting updates on my Tiktok: ro.lizeth

Thank you so much for the prayers and support.