tumors

‘She looks 7 months pregnant.’ Only 14, my stomach was so big and hard. I knew something wasn’t right.’: Woman candidly details battle with childhood ovarian cancer, infertility journey

“‘You’re fine. I’ll call the doctor, but it’s probably nothing.’ They pulled mother aside and asked if she was sure I wasn’t pregnant. ‘99% sure.’ When the test came back negative, we were told, ‘All your daughter’s organs are covered with a huge mass.'”

Edited By Irini Orihuela

‘I don’t want to die.’ Tears ran down his face as he held his little brother’s hand. I want to take away his pain.’: Mom says 7-year-old son with rare cancer is ‘a force to be reckoned with’

“He started wearing his winter coat throughout the day and complained he was cold. I noticed he had some swelling on his privates. In my gut, I had a bad feeling something just wasn’t right.”

Edited By Emily Richey

‘This won’t change his love for you.’ I was deep in wedding planning. They MUST have the wrong person.’: Woman diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis travels world, ‘Fear doesn’t control me’

“Dizzy and still very much half-deaf, she insisted I see her doctor. ‘That can’t be MY brain.’ No one could agree on what was happening to my body. I felt cheated.”

Edited By Emily Richey

‘I wouldn’t step out of the house in shorts or skirts because of the scars on my legs. ‘Why me?’ I was tired of crying out to God.’: Woman with rare Ollier’s Disease disorder and Scoliosis finds self acceptance, ‘I was handpicked’

“I became so caught up in trying to appear ‘normal’ I began to lose myself. At the end of the day, I felt like I was living a double life. I would often wear long sleeve shirts or jackets to hide my left arm. I wanted people to look beyond the scars and differences.”

Edited By Emily Richey

‘This baby is nothing but a miracle.’ I had no fallopian tubes. They were literally GONE.’: Woman with missing reproductive parts pregnant with ‘miracle baby’

“My obstetrician had to do another ultrasound just to see it with his own eyes.”

Edited By Sophia San Filippo

‘If I have surgery, I might not wake up. If I don’t, the tumors will grow, killing me anyway.’: Mom with 23 tumors pens heartbreaking love letter to her sons

“I want to watch you grow up. I want to see what you wear on your first day of school, who you fall in love with. I don’t want to miss a moment. If I wake up, I will fight for you every day. If I don’t, please don’t ever doubt the power of my undying, unrelenting, never-ending love for you.”

Edited By Becky Balfe

‘A teacher called our daughter ‘lazy,’ put her outside, and forgot about her. We found her in full-blown panic.’: Mom creates ‘disability buttons’ for daughter with special needs, in tears after people ‘finally talk to her’

“My daughter called me from a store parking lot crying. She’d gone to the toy aisle and picked a Barbie. As she walked through the door, the security alarm went off. She was scared and didn’t know what to do. The security person came up to her abruptly and demanded a receipt. Her mind went blank. I watched videos online about a ‘special needs girl getting handcuffed’ at Walmart.”

Edited By Eliza Murphy

‘Does it look too big?’ Our perfect, happy, healthy baby boy had a belly full of tumors. Cancerous tumors.’: Mom’s newborn diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, says ‘every little moment’ with loved ones is a ‘reason to celebrate’

“When our pediatrician comes back in, I see fear on her face. I feel the air leaving my lungs, my chest feels so heavy. She tells me his liver and spleen are enlarged, so enlarged the radiologist who read his X-ray asked, ‘How sick is this baby?!’ He’s not sick at all! He’s smiling and laughing, he’s perfect. I rush toward the elevator, a literal sobbing mess. How did I not know this? I thought I knew shock and devastation. I had no idea.”

Edited By Eliza Murphy

‘She told me they were doing more tests to confirm, it was up to me if I wanted to tell him or not. Wait, what? You want me to tell him?’

“You want ME to tell him he has a terminal disease? I’m barely holding it together as it is, and I am supposed to sit with him and lie and pretend like I don’t know he’s dying?”

Edited By Eliza Murphy