In mid January 2018 Vince started to have a decreased appetite, stomach pains, low-grade fevers, and low energy. Most people know Vince as the “little brown biscuit” because of his tan skin tone, but that had changed as well and he was now pale. He wasn’t acting like himself; less playful and even teachers at school noticed a change in him. We went to several doctor’s appointments with no explanation for his symptoms. On February 14, 2018 we came home from work to find him even more fatigued and we felt a mass in his stomach. Instantly we went to the hospital for further testing and were faced with the difficult news that our little boy had a Wilms tumor (a childhood kidney cancer) on his left kidney that had spread to his lungs. On February 19th Vince had his left kidney removed along with the 2.5 lb tumor.
We met with the oncologist February 27th and we were given the great new that Vince’s tumor was the favorable type of Wilms, which means less chemo and less drugs. He will need a 24-week regimen of chemotherapy and will need to undergo radiation as well. Vince will need a follow up CT scan of his abdomen and lungs on April 5th to confirm that the chemotherapy is indeed shrinking the size of the nodules in his lungs. This will be a pivotal point in Vince’s journey, as it will assure the doctors that Vince’s current treatment will be successful.
We cannot praise Vince enough for how well he has done through this all. He has surpassed all our expectations for such a young boy. To this point he is still the fun, energetic, smiling, dinosaur-loving little boy that he has always been. We praise God daily for helping to heal our little boy. Vince’s strength through this journey has kept us strong and held us together; we know that this strength is God shining through our Vinceasaurus!
