I don't want to share any identifying information without my in-laws' permission. It's not my immediate family or my child and I want to respect their privacy. But, I do feel like I should share the little bit that I can.
My niece was diagnosed with a Wilms' Tumor. It's a less-common cancer of the kidney. When it does occur, it occurs mostly in children. But even then it's usually in children between the ages of 3-7. So for it to develop in the body of a 7 month-old is unusual.
The fortunate thing is that the prognosis is good. The cancer was put at stage 2, which means it had spread a bit but not significantly. That also means that the surgeons were able to remove the entire mass in a single surgery. It also means that my niece doesn't need to go through as extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
So that was the good news. Here comes the bad. First, the tumor was HUGE, over a pound in weight, and the size of the palm of an adult hand. Second, the kidney it had grown out of had to be removed. Third, there was a subsequent complication. She had to have a second surgery to correct a bowel obstruction. That doesn't change the prognosis, but it just about drove my in-laws insane to have to see their kid go under the knife a second time so soon. Surgery on infants is always a dangerous matter. Sometimes children simply don't wake up from the anesthesia.
We're still in the very early stages of dealing with this; they only found out the tumor existed a few weeks ago when my sister-in-law took my niece to the hospital for completely unrelated reasons. They thought she was having an allergic reaction to antibiotics she'd been prescribed to treat a bad ear infection, and the doctor's office was closed. They got there and found out it was every parent's nightmare.
The process is going to be slow. Unfortunately for my niece it isn't going to be without pain. She's been pretty miserable so far, and the bowel obstruction was a definite setback. It's delayed her chemo and radiation treatments for a few weeks.
On the plus side she IS improving. She's been acting more like a baby again, and has actually smiled and cooed a fair amount. She's a real fighter, and she's at one of the best hospitals in the world for cancer treatment. There's every reason in the world to believe that she's going to pull through this and grow up to be a happy, healthy, cancer-free child and then adult.
Your thoughts and prayers are very, very appreciated. It's been a rough time for my family. We definitely need all of the support we can get. So thank you for that support, and thank you for reading this.
As a conclusion, I'm posting
this link to the American Cancer Society's donation page. It's been a rough few days for me, with all that I've written about in the preceding pages of this thread. It's been an even rougher time for my niece. If a little good can come out of so much bad then I'm going to do what I can to make that happen.