Four days ago, we prayed that the mass growing inside 4-year-old Camilla’s mouth was not cancer.
Four days ago, we prayed that the mass growing inside 4-year-old Camilla’s mouth was not cancer.
Today, her mom reached back out to me with the answer this family desperately did not want.
It is cancer.
Camilla has been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma.
And the little girl you helped surround with prayer is now facing roughly a year and a half of chemotherapy and radiation.
If you remember Camilla’s story, doctors discovered a large mass after what initially looked like a sore on the roof of her mouth.
Surgeons were able to remove about two-thirds of it.
Her mom, Yeseñia, says they had to leave the rest because part of the mass involves Camilla’s carotid artery and surrounding blood vessels.
For days, they waited for pathology.
Yeseñia told me today those results confirmed rhabdomyosarcoma.
“This is not the news we were praying for, and our hearts are heavy.”
There are still critical questions doctors need to answer.
Next week, Camilla is expected to return to Little Rock, Arkansas for a PET scan, bone marrow biopsy and placement of a port.
Her doctors are considering two treatment approaches: one shorter and more intense, the other longer and less intense on her little body.
Her family expects chemotherapy and radiation to stretch across approximately the next year and a half.
She is four.
That is the part that keeps hitting me.
But Yeseñia also wants everyone who prayed for Camilla four days ago to know they aren’t giving up hope because the answer wasn’t the one they wanted.
“We need our prayer warriors more than ever.”
So I’m asking all of you to show up for this little girl again.
Pray that next week’s testing brings the best news still possible.
Pray that doctors choose the right treatment.
Pray that Camilla’s little body handles it well.
And pray for complete healing as this family begins a journey they never expected their 4-year-old to face.
