Elena’s Story

Site created on July 1, 2019

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


On Wednesday, June 26, 2019 just hours before we were supposed to catch a flight to Florida for our first family vacation to Disney World, we headed to Patient First to have them check Elena as she was limping a bit since the day before. From the X-ray results, they thought Elena had a hairline fracture in her left femur. After talking to her pediatrician, it was suggested that we head to Johns Hopkins Orthopedic outpatient just to check things out further.

It was then that we found out that our sweet Elena, who just turned 4 in June, has a mass/tumor in her left leg. As you can imagine, our world was turned upside down. The next day a bone biopsy was performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center.

What we know so far:

1) Elena's CT scan shows a large lesion emerging from her left femur that extends around the bone.

2) Her chest CT shows no evidence of metastatic disease (spread of the tumor).

3) The biopsy performed by Dr. Morris shows small, round blue cell tumor cells. This is a description by the pathologist of what the cells look like under the microscope. These are seen in various pediatric cancers but in Elena's case it is suggestive of a Ewing's Sarcoma given the location and imaging features of the mass.

4) We are still awaiting final pathology to confirm the diagnosis.

We would appreciate all the prayers and positive healing thoughts you can send to Elena and our family during this extremely difficult time.

We are so blessed to have a large caring family as well as many friends and community members that want to send well wishes and check on Elena’s journey. We will try our best to keep this page updated with the latest news.

Newest Update

July 21, 2023

Journal entry by Nga LeMoine —

Prayer requests for our beautiful, brave and resilient warrior


We had hoped our Elena would have a summer free of surgeries so that her body may heal from the previous year’s six surgeries and that she can enjoy this summer with her family and friends.  In her latest follow-up with Dr. Prince, he shared that the bone graft (performed in the  November’s surgery) used to fuse her femoral head to the femoral a neck in her left femur has not fully attached. And so we are now sitting at MSK this morning in preparation for her surgery with the ever optimistic and talented Dr. Prince and his amazing team!


Dr. Prince also shared that the regeneration of Elena’s left femur has continue to grow and thicken and he believes it’s strong enough to start the leg lengthening process. Elena currently has a 12.5 cm leg length discrepancy.  Therefore, this mornings surgery goal will address both challenges. Elena will also need two additional surgeries (in Oct and January) to correct her leg length discrepancy.


We are asking for positive healing thoughts and prayers this morning so that God may guide Dr. Prince’s skilled hands and for Elena’s entire surgical teams of doctors and nurses  caring for our precious girl to have the best possible results and outcome. We are hopeful this complex and long surgery will complete the foundation needed for her hip development and leg lengthening. 


We are so grateful for everyone’s continued love and support for our brave girl. Elena has always portrayed such grace with every challenge and obstacle put on her path during her cancer journey and this latest process is no exception. 


With love, appreciation and gratitude.

The LeMoine family




Read More of the journal titled "July 21, 2023"
  • Elena with big brother, Ethan at her First Communion in May 
    Elena with big brother, Ethan at her First Communion in May
  • Family respite trip with our Lighthouse family partners
    Family respite trip with our Lighthouse family partners
  • Elena and Mama channeling hope! 
    Elena and Mama channeling hope!
  • Enjoying the white sands and water at Miramar Beach in Florida during sunset
    Enjoying the white sands and water at Miramar Beach in Florida ...
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