The Strongest Boy I Know

Tiago is our 2.5 year old little boy and has recently been diagnosed with non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. We have created this GoFundMe to help pay for his treatments and all things related to his treatments. WHAT HAPPENED?  Tiago is, unfortunately, no stranger to hospitals. In July 2021, at just 20 months old, he was hospitalized in the pediatric ICU for bronchiulitis. He had just started daycare. After 5 long days, we thought we had put the worst week of our lives behind us and were set to look forward to the future. Over the next few months, we noticed lingering respiratory symptoms, such as a cough, wheezing and generally low stamina. We were told he likely had reactive airway disease and that after a year of daycare, his immune system would get stronger. We held out, comforted him when we could and moved on with life.  His baby sister was born in June 2022 and we took our first family vacation to Spain for a family wedding in August 2022. While in Spain, Tiago spiked a fever. We took him to urgent care and they prescribed Tylenol and rest. We waited, isolated him and ourselves from others that might be sick and rotated who would take care of baby sister and who would take care of Tiago. We were a team! But Tiago didn’t get better. After a few days, we ended up in the ER in Spain, where he was diagnosed with an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. Finally! A diagnosis that would make real change. He started showing signs of life; playing, laughing, exploring. But they only lasted for a few hours before he would spike another fever and wither into a whimpering ball in the bed. Soon, we started showing symptoms of a virus and low and behold, tested positive for The Virus That Shall Not Be Named (COV*D). We assumed that the kids had it too and THAT must be the reason why he still wasn’t getting better…right? We got better and our symptoms faded, but Tiago still didn’t get better. By the time he finished his antibiotics, we were rotating Tylenol and Ibuprofen to keep his fever down and try to keep him comfortable. At night, he would break out into sweats that soaked sheets and pillows, while he would whimper and say “hurt.”  As soon as we touched down back in the states, we made our way to the ER. We were clearly no strangers to the ER, and were expecting a positive COV*D test and a potential overnight hospital stay. While we were in the ER, we were sitting on the hospital bed playing “Stinky Feet”, and I overheard a dad arguing with the doctor about radiation therapy for his little girl who was not much older than Tiago. I remember thinking to myself, “Thank God that’s not me,” while I took another sniff of his tiny toes.  The doctor ordered X-rays and viral swabs - routine for us at this point - and we waited. Something weird came up on the X-ray, she said, so they were going to order another one. Shortly after that, I was reliving the worst week of my life all over again: something is wrong, we need an ambulance to transport you, you need to be at the children’s hospital. My hands were shaking while I texted my friends, “they think it’s a mass”, and my breath and voice escaped me while I explained it to my husband. 12 agonizing hours went by, while we met doctors from the emergency department, hematology, oncology, infectious disease and surgery. He was poked and prodded, blew IVs and poked again. He was sent for this scan and that while I sent screenshots of medical reports to my brother and friends to translate for me.  Then, we waited. “It’s like watching paint dry,” they said.  On August 31, 2022, the worst day of my life I had already lived was outranked: the results came back that my baby had a 6 cm mass in the middle of his chest - my sweet baby has cancer.  Cancer in children versus adults is different. Their bodies are different and their metabolisms are different. Our doctors at Yale Childrens are confident that with chemo and treatment, that he will make a full recovery in 6-12 months. Our earnest hope is that in a few months, he will make a full recovery, and we can put this whole experience behind us as a bad dream.  THE STRONGEST BOY if you’ve ever met Tiago, you know he is a sweet, gentle, caring little boy. He loves all things boy with a side of glitter and rainbows. He is observant and curious and loves to learn. He is a huge helper and especially loves to help mama water her garden (and eat her tomatoes) and help papa mow the lawn. He is gentle with his 2 month old baby sister and loves to hold her hand and give her kisses.   Most important of all these things, he is strong.  When he is scared, he stays calm and patient and silently grips his favorite truck while he waits for the doctors to tell him it’s over. He is trusting that those around him will keep him safe. When he has to get his hundredth IV, he urgently says, “all done, please”, while he desperately stares at us. He listens intently and repeats your words when you tell him that he’s sick and needs help, as if he were using it as a mantra to remind himself to be strong.  These are not skills that he built over a lifetime; these are skills that he spontaneously came up with over a course of days. While we were reeling, processing and researching, he was building resolve to go through the scariest event of his life, barely understanding what was happening and just placing all of his trust and safety in our hands.  Your help gives us the means to honor his trust that we will keep him safe. When he holds his favorite little truck, he is building a resolve that no babe should have to know. When he grips our fingers with his tiny hands, we will all be there, supporting that resolve and letting him know that it’s ok to be scared, but he will be ok. Please help us support the strongest boy we know. HOW YOUR DONATIONS WILL HELP Primarily, donations will be used to pay for treatments that insurance doesn’t cover. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell exactly how much we will need to cover Tiago’s treatments, or how long they will last. A course of chemotherapy Can run a bill of upwards of $15,000. We will be going through one treatment every 3 weeks for the next 6-12 months, in addition to a 6 day hospital stay for every course of treatment. Of course, we do have health insurance, but as with many plans, not all treatments are fully covered.  If there is any leftover, we will use that to cover related costs of treatment such as: parking and transportation fees, medicine, medical supplies used at home, enrolling in child-specific programs at the hospital, emergency room visits and a little treat here and there for after treatment.  Tiago also has a new baby sister that he adores! Because of his immunocompromised state, we have made the decision to pull Tiago and his sister out of daycare, and I have quit my job to take care of my family full time. Your donations will also help us get the support we need so family bonding with our new baby is not forsaken and that we can continue to feed her all the love and nourishment she needs while also focusing on getting Tiago to recovery.  Once treatments are done, any leftover money will be donated to another local family in need. In honor of our community who has supported us through this time, we hope to give leftover funds to another family in the hopes of relieving a tiny bit of burden from their hearts, just as you have done for us.