Jayla’s Story

Site created on September 10, 2023


This past spring, Jayla's mom and dad, James and Sarah, noticed a bump on Jayla's back, on her left scapular area. It looked like a lipoma, but also appeared to be growing. They took Jayla to see her pediatrician and she also thought it may look like a lipoma, but ordered an ultrasound to be sure.  The ultrasound was inconclusive, mass measuring 3cm at that time - quite large especially for Jayla's age, so she was referred to a pediatric surgeon specialist at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.  


The decision was made to surgically remove it so they could get a pathology report to fully identify. The surgery was on July 25, and by then the tumor had grown to 4cm. It took some time to get the complete pathology report, as the surgeon said it was unusual and needed more study by a few pathologists. The report came on August 4.  The diagnosis was Neuroblastoma, a fast-growing rare childhood cancer.  That was a shock to everyone, as Jayla is seemingly very happy and healthy! The surgeon set up an appointment with a pediatric oncologist, who explained Jayla would need MRI and MIBG scans to determine if the cancer had spread and to where in her body for staging. 


The scans took place on August 30, and the oncologist called on September 1 with devastating news: there was another (likely the primary site) tumor on her adrenal gland (measuring 9.9 cm) and also neuroblastoma cells in a couple lymph nodes that classified her case as Intermediate Risk Neuroblastoma and will require chemotherapy treatment and possible surgery to cure. It has been a whirlwind of meetings with doctors, and now Jayla will be admitted to Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego September 11th. She will undergo surgery to have a port placed into her chest, perform bone marrow aspiration and biopsy to test any involvement of bones, and then begin her treatment plan consisting of 4 cycles of chemo treatment. Since Jayla is an infant, she will require overnight hospitalization for monitoring during treatment and will last 4-5 days for each cycle. If all goes well with the first cycle of treatment, she will be discharged on September 16, her first birthday! 


Please keep Jayla and her family in your prayers.  We ask the Lord for complete healing for Jayla with no ill effects from the chemo treatments, and strength and peace for Sarah and James and their oldest daughter, Kyley (4), as they navigate this journey.

Newest Update

April 29, 2024

Journal entry by Sarah Randolph —

Hi everyone! We're so excited to share great news about Jayla! While it's not the news we long to hear someday (no evidence of disease and cancer free!), we are so grateful for her progress. And we know we'll get that miraculous news someday! Jayla had her MIBG scan done at CHLA on April 10 and her MRI at Rady's on April 18, and today we finally received word that both reports have been reviewed by both doctors. Jayla's main tumor is still shrinking, and a few tumors have disappeared! No new cancer either! Because of this, the doctors say no further chemo treatment or surgery at this time! Such huge answers to prayer!!!

Her docs also gave the ok to remove Jayla's port! We are so excited to have this removed. It has been tough seeing this foreign object protrude from her little body, and there's so much risk of infection she carries with this (we've already been in the ER once and admitted for a few nights, so we don't care to go back!). Her surgeon is booking out to the middle of summer, however they had an opening become available, which is pretty rare they say, so we are grateful to have this taken out next week! She is scheduled for surgery Monday morning (May 6). Please keep her in your prayers!

Jayla will have her next scans in August. They want her to have scans every 4 months, then the next year will be every 6 months, then the following year and thereafter will hopefully be just yearly. Anesthesia is a huge concern for us, so we discussed other potential options with the CHLA docs. They are scheduling an ultrasound while we're in LA for her MIBG scan, and if they are able to easily visualize her main tumor on ultrasound, we will cancel the MRI. This can save her some anesthesia and she'll no longer have to do MRIs. Big prayers for this!!

There are SO many things to praise God for. Thank you to each and every one of you for being with us on this journey and praying so heavily for Jayla! God has been moving, He's been so faithful and we have felt so held by Him! 

Can't thank you enough for continued prayers. We will continue to update with any news and prayer requests! 

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