Camaya
Age 2
Camaya, the youngest in a set of spontaneous, identical triplets, was born on August 9, 2022. Although born premature (at 31 weeks), Camaya and her sisters were all very healthy. They spent about a month in the NICU as "feeders and growers."
In March of 2023, at six months old, Camaya, who was meeting all milestones until that point, started to show a decline in about a week’s time frame. She first lost all her social skills – no longer laughing, babbling, or making eye contact. At this point, she was also sleeping a lot more than usual. A few days later, she had stopped rolling over and holding her head up. And by the end of the week, she had begun significantly crossing her eyes.
A pediatrician immediately ordered a head ultrasound, revealing a brain mass with a significant amount of fluid and pressure built up on her brain. Camaya was transferred to a children's hospital for an MRI and surgery to place a shunt and biopsy the tumor. The diagnosis was ATRT. While awaiting genetic testing results, Camaya's asymptomatic sisters were evaluated – their head ultrasounds were clear, and the cancer was later confirmed as non-genetic.
At the time of her diagnosis, the neurosurgeon stated her tumor was inoperable due to the size, location, and how vascular the tumor was. Camaya’s family opted into tweaking the “traditional” treatment plan, and instead of removing the tumor first – she did two rounds of chemotherapy to see if the tumor would shrink and become less bloody. GOD WILLING – IT WORKED!! Her tumor was the size of a golf ball when we found it shrunk to the size of a pea.
On May 8, 2023, Camaya underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor. She then completed three bone marrow transplants where she was her own donor, as well as five and a half weeks of proton radiation therapy.
Camaya completed treatment at the end of November 2023, and on December 12, 2023, received the news that she was officially in remission. Camaya has remained in remission ever since!!!