Alaina Riggall
Lainey was 4.5 years old when we found a lump in her abdomen. She was a healthy, well-appearing kid with no signs of illness. We took her to Upstate Pediatric ER where within hours, she was diagnosed with multiple tumors in both of her kidneys. At that moment, our lives changed completely.
Within days, she had further testing with confirmed bilateral Wilms tumor. She had a port placed and started three drug chemotherapy in an attempt to shrink the tumors and preserve as much kidney tissue as possible. The chemo started to work, shrinking the tumors but in turn caused severe side effects. Pain, nausea, loss of appetite, constipation, weakness, and of course hair loss all hit fast and furious, within a few weeks she had to be re-admitted due to dehydration and malnutrition. She had a nasogastric tube inserted which allowed us to provide her with fluids and nutrition she desperately needed to fight this monster.
“She was a healthy, well-appearing kid with no signs of illness. We took her to Upstate Pediatric ER where within hours, she was diagnosed with multiple tumors in both of her kidneys. At that moment, our lives changed completely.”
She completed 9 weeks of chemotherapy at Upstate and then we traveled to Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC where she underwent an 11 hour surgery to remove the 25 tumors from her kidneys. Her recovery was difficult but 10 days later she was discharged home. Testing of the tumors determined her course of treatment and she had 9 more weeks of chemotherapy after surgery.
On August 10, 2022 Lainey “rang the bell” signifying the end of treatment. She was left with significant weakness, foot drop, wrist drop and fine motor difficulties which she spent the next two years completing physical therapy to improve.
Lainey is now a healthy 2nd grader, who is growing and thriving. She has an older sister that she loves dearly, and whom also had to deal with the trauma of seeing her little sister go through such a difficult treatment- cancer really does impact the whole family. Lainey has finally graduated from all her therapies and participates in dance, karate and many other activities.
We still are dealing with routine scans every three months, follow ups with multiple specialties, and another congenital liver problem that was incidentally found. However our family is so grateful to Lainey’s team of doctors, local cancer organizations, and the community of support she has behind her. We know that she will go on to do amazing things.❤️
