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A Desperate Plea For Help!

March 9, 2010 By 32 Comments

I apologize ahead of time if this comes off a bit disjointed.  I have never been very good at waiting and so I am typing and thinking and pleaing all at the same time here (and I don’t think “pleaing” is a word either…sorry about that, too).

I’ve mentioned my cousin’s 11 month old daughter, Penelope.  She has been recently diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma.  Penny’s insurance is only going to cover 60% of her treatments.  As it is, they haven’t even left the hospital and already have a $4000 bill for her very first CT scan. And there is more coming:

Since then she’s had 2 MRI’s, a bone scan, two nuclear medicine scans, a bone marrow biopsy, two surgeries, 7 rounds of anesthesia, daily X-rays, 1 cycle of chemotherapy, countless meetings/reviews with Dr’s, and 12 days inpatient.  On top of that we were informed that once we’re released she needs daily GCS-F shots.  A 10 day treatment of these shots costs $1,500.  So, we’d need two 10 day cycles per month, since she’ll get chemo every three weeks and be inpatient 3-5 days after.  Of course, this medication is NOT covered by our insurance. ~www.pennies4penny.org

Ouch.

My heart is so heavy for my cousin and her little family.

So, I started thinking.  Heck, I’m a blogger.  I’m “in tune” with social media.  I have seen Twitter go crazy over less important stuff.  How can I use my “influence” (term I use loosely – lol) to help my sweet baby cousin?

This is where YOU come in.

I’m staging a massive offensive.  I want to spread the word of Penny and her fight to the world.  I need bloggers blogging about her, I need twitterers tweeting about her and I want Facebookers Facebooking about her!

We need our local San Diego news stations to pick up her story (tweet them Fox 5, 10News, NBC San Diego) .  We are looking for businesses to donate goods/services for fund raising purposes.  I will be organizing an online auction and need donations so that 100% of the proceeds can go to Penny’s treatment.

Will you please help?

You may or may not be aware that  just today, another little girl tragically passed of this dreadful disease.  In no way do I want to be insensitive to sweet Layla Grace or her family.  But time is also of the essence for Penny and I don’t want to waste it.

Please don’t let Penny’s story end like Layla’s!  It is simply unbearable to imagine.

Join me!  This Friday March 12th.

  • Please post about Pennies4Penny.org on your blog.  You have the families permission to use her photo as long as it’s in conjunction with a post about her and in no way derogatory or offensive.
  • Please FLOOD Twitter with Penny’s fight!  Link to your post or Penny’s website, or both.  Follow @pennies4penny and Use hash tag #pennies4penny.
  • Please post Facebook status updates about Penny’s website and her Facebook Fan page at “pennies4penny”.
  • Grab Penny’s Widget (located on my sidebar) to bring awareness of her fight to your own website.
  • And if you are one that does not blog, tweet or facebook, then please just email everyone you know about Penny’s website!

I will have a post up on Friday at Pennies4Penny.org with a linky so you may link your love to it for her family and friends to see.

If you are a company that would like to donate goods/services for an online fundraiser, please contact me here to discuss details.

Thank you SO much!

Pennies for Penny



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Pennies for Penny

March 3, 2010 By 10 Comments

I told you all last week about my infant cousin, Penelope who was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma.  Well, I got to go visit her yesterday and so I wanted to share an update with you.

From what her mommy & daddy tell me, Penny bumped her head last week.  A few days later, she developed these terrible black eyes.  So they had her into the doctor and suspected she must have it it really hard, or maybe there was a bleeding disorder going on.  A few different thoughts on it.  Well, when her eyes didn’t clear up, the doctor had them take her to the emergency room.  I guess they thought maybe something was broken.

They spent a long time at the ER having cat scans done to look for breaks or something to explain the back eyes.  Several hours later, a doctor pulled the screen and told them that they had found “something” on the cat scan.  He told them right then that he thought it was neuroblastoma.

Penny was admitted to the hospital where my cousin’s life changed.

I suppose if you want to find the silver lining here it would be that less than 5% of these cases present in the face with the black eyes.  If her eyes hadn’t done that, they would still not even know she was sick.  And because they were able to discover and diagnose the cancer before her 1st birthday, it makes treating it that much better.  Even still, her prognoses for complete recovery is only 60%.

My beautiful cousin went from being a doting mother of a perfect 11 month old, to being worried sick for her child.

Poor sweet Penny has gone from being a rambunctious little thing with an Italian appetite, to being lethargic and quiet.

Seeing her yesterday broke my heart.

This isn’t fair.  Penny was a planned baby, very wanted and so loved by a HUGE family.  For this to happen to her just isn’t fair!

I got the privilege of creating a website for Penny.  There will hopefully be some content on there in the next couple days.  Her dad is currently writing up the past weeks events and we’ll have them posted soon.  As you can imagine, he’s a little busy right now.

There will be a paypal account created for Penny and her care.  Currently, their insurance will only cover 60% of her treatments.  That leaves a lot to be made up.  Penny will have chemo on a weekly basis and who knows what kind of surgeries will be in her future.

I hope you feel compelled to bookmark her site and continue to pray for her healing and her parents strength.

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Today Is A Really Screwed Up Day

February 27, 2010 By 20 Comments

Today I’m frustrated.

And sad.

Really, really sad.

I found out yesterday (my whole family found out yesterday) that my cousin’s beautiful baby girl, Penny has Stage 4 Neuroblastoma.  Whatever the hell that even means…I don’t know.  I only know that my family is reeling and Penny is in a fight for her life.

My cousin has had a jacked up year and this is just one more thing that she doesn’t deserve.

I guess little Penny is one sick little girl.  Tumors rage throughout her body, her eyes are puffy with dark circles underneath.

I just want to vomit.

This isn’t even MY child, but she is my family and my heart is hurting.

And then to make me feel even worse, it’s raining outside and my boys are going stir crazy.  I can’t help getting irritated with them and then I am so angry at myself for being mad.  Here are these beautiful healthy little boys who are driving me NUTS.  Penny’s not even old enough to drive anyone nuts.

She’s not even one.

If you are a spiritual person I would really appreciate it if you could send some prayers her way.  Fund raising efforts are in the very very early stages but if you feel compelled, you can follow them on Facebook at Pennies for Penny.

*sigh*

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