EPISODE #002 – Mariella
DIAGNOSIS: Wilm’s Tumor Stage IV
BACKGROUND:
Mariella is the only girl in the family of 5 siblings. She is a quiet and homebody teenager who likes to draw. She goes to Pasay City North High School -Tramo Campus.
Mariella was in grade 7 when she got sick. She continued online schooling until grade 10 while undergoing treatment.
It was March 2021, at 14 yrs. old, when she constantly felt sick like there is gas in her stomach (kabag in Tagalog). So, the mother was just putting manzanilla as what parents would usually apply on the stomach of their children, usually cholic newborn babies when they have gas. Soon, she started to feel pain around her hips and started to have a fever. Her hemoglobin suddenly dropped and she needed a blood transfusion immediately.
She was later diagnosed with a Stage 4 Wilm’s Tumor on the left kidney. She then had surgery on June 4 th, 2021 to remove the left kidney. Her chemo started right away and lasted for 6 mos.
Unfortunately, in Jan. 2022 while monitoring her progress, a CT scan showed that a new tumor had developed in the same location where the left kidney was removed. Another set of chemotherapy was ordered but did not seem to help. As a result, a 2nd surgery was performed on Aug. 2022 to remove the tumor. A more aggressive chemo was then ordered for her. This is when the chemo took a toll on her health. She drastically lost weight and started to have seizures 4x a day.
By Dec. 2022, Mariella was diagnosed with Cortical Visual Impairment. She is now blind in both eyes as a result of the salvage chemo.
She has been confined at the National Children’s Hospital in Quezon City since Dec. 13th, 2022 up to the time of this video. She does not have an appetite to eat. She only eats one spoon of food and would stop eating. She weighs only about 70 lbs. now. She just likes to sleep to escape from pain and body numbness. She is given sleeping pills every 8hrs. but sometimes it does not work and she just cries & endures the pain.