Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer

www.lehighvalleylive.com
By Lynn Olanoff
9/13/2011

Freemansburg residents Alisa and Wilson Gonzalez knew their baby had a tumor even before they knew she was a girl.

A routine ultrasound during Alisa’s 36th week of pregnancy showed a tumor on their baby’s adrenal gland. After additional tests in her 38th week, the couple was told to come in two weeks after their baby’s birth for further direction.

On April 9, 2010, their daughter, Isabella, was born. They started the wait as recommended, but noticed Isabella’s stomach was hard and distended.

They couldn’t wait the two weeks. Isabella had to go for more tests right away, tests that would show her entire liver covered with tumors. It was a typical symptom of neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, they were told.

    “I lost my dad to lung cancer, so when I heard cancer, I thought we were automatically going to lose her,” Alisa Gonzalez said. “Here we are, looking at our (newborn) baby and she’s so fragile. It’s our worst nightmare.”

While the family had been previously told tumors on infants can often be just monitored or require a simple surgical removal, that wasn’t the case with Isabella. She needed chemotherapy and radiation right away, and after the serious treatment, she would have to be hospitalized and isolated for weeks.

After six weeks, the family finally received some good news: Isabella’s tumors had shrunken by at least 50 percent. What remained would likely go away on their own, the family was told.

So finally, after almost two months of spending most of their time at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Gonzalezes saw their child discharged and could begin their new life with Isabella. Wilson Gonzalez returned to work at Bank of America. Alisa Gonzalez was going to return in January as a first-grade teacher at Spring Garden Elementary School in Bethlehem.

Isabella, also called Isa, had to go to Philadelphia every three months for follow-up tests. Her fall test was encouraging and so was the one in the winter. The family was feeling hopeful on a drive back from Philadelphia following the second tests in December when Isabella stopped breathing. Back to the hospital they went.

Her tumors were still fine but her airway was not. It hadn’t fully developed and was nearly closed shut. After going into cardiac arrest, Isabella would again be in the hospital for several weeks.

The 17-month-old has now been home for good since mid-January. Her airway hasn’t fully healed — you can hear her labored breaths as she toddles around the house — but it’s improved to the point where she can play and live just like any other child her age.

    "She’s developing beautifully," Alisa Gonzalez said. "You would look at her and never know all that she’s been through."

Doctors are hopeful Isabella’s airway will grow as the rest of her does, but the family will learn next month whether she may need surgery.

    "We're hoping she doesn't need that because she's already been through too much," Alisa Gonzalez said.

While the parents await the next round of tests, they feel positive enough to want to give back to an organization that helped them out while they were in the hospital. The Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, based just outside of Philadelphia, provided the family with emotional and some financial assistance during Isabella’s stays at the hospital and now the family is organizing a fundraiser for the childhood cancer research group. On Sept. 17, the family is putting on Isa’s Run for a Cure, a 5k race in West Bethlehem, to benefit the foundation.

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