Other Vika's photos

Hello!
My name is Olga Smirnova. My daughter Vika is 2 years old. She is treated at the City hospital No.31 because she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. By now, we have already completed several chemotherapy rounds and Vika also had an operation. After the first round, 70% of the tumor disappeared, although Vika suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. At the same time, she had pneumonia. After the second block, she only had vomiting.
Now, after the fifth round, we are at home. Vika does not feel very well, has low appetite and was vomiting. Next week, she needs to have CT scan, the funds for which were raised at St. Petersburg's Parents forum. After the sixth round, Vika will need a surgery on her chest to remove the tumor. The treatment is free for us, but we frequently have to pay for the tests and medications for side effects. Please help us with paying for Vika's treatment!

Contact phone:
+7 (921) 781-42-09 (Olga, Vika's mom)

Update as of November 20, 2009. Hello! After the fifth round of chemotherapy, Vika was vomiting the whole day. And in two days, her temperature rose to 38.6C. She now receives antibiotics, and has an inflammation on her buttocks.
Vika needs Argosulgan and Alazol. Her blood counts went down and she needs help of blood donors.
Prior to the sixth round, she is planned to undergo CT scan.
Vika's mom

Update as of December 13, 2009. Vika was transferred to Pediatric Academy for surgery in her chest. CT scan showed positive dynamic, and based on test results the doctors are planning two surgeries: one now, and another after Vika recovers and receives a few more chemotherapy rounds.
Vika feels well. We would like to thank Tatyana for buying necessary medications!

Update as of December 25, 2009. Based on the computed tomography results Vika was to have a surgery but it was postponed due to a cold. On December 24 Vika was transferred to Hospital 31, now she is to have the 6th chemotherapy course and the surgery is to be performed after it. She is feeling fine, her temperature is normal and she has a good appetite.

Update as of January 14, 2010. Vika completed the 6th cycle of chemotherapy. She was allowed to go home for a day, but she had to return to the hospital right away: her temperature went up and had been staying high for the last week. Although tests did not discover any fungal or viral infection, Vika still has high temperature. She also suffers from stomatitis.
Her mom is very grateful to Tatyana for the ointments that are alleviating Vika's condition.

Update as of February 5, 2010. Vika is still at home. She feels well and is in a happy mood. Today she was at the hospital for catheter cleaning. On Monday she will be hospitalized at the day unit of Gorbacheva center. Then she will undergo stem cell collection for the autologous bone marrow transplant.

Update as of February 20, 2010. Vika is now being examined at the BMT clinic. Next week she is scheduled for a puncture, i.e. bone marrow sampling for analysis. The girl is feeling fine, her mood and appetite are great.

Update as of February 28, 2010. Vika's bone marrow was collected for testing and she was allowed to go home for the weekend. If the test results are good, on Wednesday her cells will be harvested for the transplantation. Vika feels well and has a good appetite. She gained a bit of weight.

Update as of March 7, 2010. Based on results of bone marrow study, no cancer cells were found, and Vika's stem cells were harvested for autologous transplantation. She is now at home and feels well. In the next few days Vika will be admitted to City hospital No.31 for two cycles of chemotherapy, and afterwards she will be transferred to R. Gorbacheva Pediatric Hematology and Transplantology Institute for autologous bone marrow transplantation.
Vika's mom is sincerely grateful to Tatiana who has been a great help for them with buying current medications.

Update as of March 30, 2010. On March 26th Vika was installed a catheter, and today she started 7th chemotherapy cycle. After the 8th cycle, bone marrow transplantation is planned. Vika feels well and has good appetite.

Update as of April 18, 2010. After chemotherapy, Vika's blood counts stayed low for a long time. She had nosebleeds for several days and needed platelet transfusions. Then she got a bad cough and was diagnosed with pneumonia in her left lung. Vika is feeling better now and her blood counts are increasing gradually. However, due to pneumonia the last chemotherapy cycle was postponed.

Update as of April 30, 2010. The pneumonia was taken under control. On Tuesday Vika started another chemotherapy cycle. She feels well and is in a great mood, especially since she was able to stay at home for a few days.
Vika learned three new words: "dyadya", "tetya" and "Anya" and now she has 11 words in her vocabulary!

Update as of May 23, 2010. Vika finished the 8th cycle of chemotherapy and was discharged from hospital No.31. She is now at home with her parents and her sister. Vika feels well, has a good appetite and is in a happy mood.
In the next few days, transplantation date will be established, but beforehand, Vika will need to undergo high-dosage chemotherapy.

Update as of June 7, 2010. Today Vika was hospitalized at BMT clinic. In the next few days she will have tests. She is also planned to have more stem cells harvested, and afterwards Vika will have high-dosage chemotherapy. Vika feels well now and is in a great mood.

Update as of July 13, 2010. Vika underwent high-dose chemotherapy cycle. She did not tolerate it well and was frequently losing consciousness.
On July 9th at BMT clinic she received stem cell transplant. Vika felt unwell: she was vomiting and had a fever. On the second day post-transplant, her blood counts started plummeting. Today her leukocytes are 0.3, platelets - 86 and hemoglobin - 81.
But Vikusya is staying strong: she feels relatively well, has a good appetite and is in a good mood. As always, she wants to play and run around, but she is not allowed for now.
Vika's mom is very grateful to Tanya who brought medications from AdVita fund to the hospital.

Update as of July 23, 2010. Vika is in 15th day post-transplant. Previous few days she was feeling unwell: she had fever for three days, developed stomatitis and a skin rash. Vika received several blood transfusions. As of today, her blood counts are: leukocytes - 0.3, platelets - 11, hemoglobin - 86, and her temperature is 37.5C.
Vikusya is now feeling a little better, as her stomatitis is subsiding and skin rash as well. As soon as she started to get better, Vika started feeling better too. She is now lively and active as usual.

Update as of July 28, 2010. Vika still has elevated temperature (37.2C). Other than that, she feels well and is in a good mood. Her stomatitis is almost gone. Vika receives platelet transfusions, and she needs help from blood donors with blood type I(+). As of today, she has leukocytes - 0.5, platelets - 14, and hemoglobin - 108.

Update as of August 3, 2010. Vika feels well and has a good appetite. Stomatitis is gone completely. However, her blood counts are still low: leukocytes are 0.5, platelets - 5, and hemoglobin - 76. Vika needs regular blood transfusions. We need help from blood donors with blood type I(+).

Update as of August 17, 2010. On August 5th Vika received additional stem cells. Her blood counts are still low: leukocytes are 1.2, platelets are 11 and hemoglobin - 80.
Vika receives Neupogen and needs regular platelets transfusions. She is now at home, but comes to the clinic for procedures and tests. She feels well, has great appetite and is in a happy mood. Vika goes for walks and enjoys finally being at home with her mom, dad and a sister.

Update as of August 23, 2010. Vika feels well, but her blood counts are still low for now: leukocytes are 1.2, platelets - 13 and hemoglobin - 77. She still needs regular blood transfusions.

Update as of September 9, 2010. Vika is doing great. She feels well and her blood counts are recovering. As of today, her platelet count is 33, leukocytes 2.1 and hemoglobin 101. She was discharged home. In the next few days she will be examined at hospital No.31.

Update as of October 7, 2010. Vika is at home. She feels well. Vika is developing quickly and talking a lot. The isotope tests showed that she does not have tumor cells. Her blood counts are good: hemoglobin - 130, platelets - 101, and leukocytes - 4. She receives Roaccutane. On October 8th she will be tested at hospital No.31 to verify her treatment plan.

Update as of October 30, 2010. Vika feels well. She will need to continue Roaccutane for about six month (6 cycles according to the protocol). The next cycle will start on October 29th and the drug is available at the hospital.

Update as of December 9, 2010. Vika is at home. She feels great and has good appetite. Vika is in good spirits. She has a mild reaction to Roaccutane - peeling skin. Vika comes to the hospital for tests and ultrasounds. All her counts are normal.

Update as of March 13, 2011. Vika completed the 6th cycle of Roaccutane. Based on ultrasound, x-ray and test results, all is well. The next examination at hospital No.31 is planned for mid-April. Vika has grown a lot and feels well.

Update as of May 30, 2011. In mid-April Vika underwent evaluation at hospital No. 31. All is well and test results are normal. She is now on a 3-month break from Roaccutane therapy. On June 3rd she needs to start a new cycle. The cost of a cycle of Roaccutane (Vika needs 5 packages at 10 mg) costs 12,500 rubles. Vika's family received 5,000 rubles from a member of St. Petersburg's Parents web forum. They needs to raise the rest of the money to afford the medication.
New Vika's photos

Update as of June 7, 2011. Vika started Roaccutane therapy that should last 2 weeks. She feels well and blood counts are normal. In the next 6 months, two weeks of therapy will be followed two weeks of rest. The next cycle will start in early July, and for now the hospital does not have Roaccutane.

Update as of July 18, 2011. Unfortunately, Vika had a relapse. She had surgery at Neurosurgery unit of Rauhfus Children's Hospital No.19 as the tumor as growing into Vika's spine. The doctors freed up her spine and she is now undergoing chemotherapy at hospital No.31. Once it is over, unrelated bone marrow transplantation will be considered.

Update as of August 15, 2011. After surgery at Rauhfus Institute, Vika is starting to walk, although very carefully. She had the first cycle of anti-relapse chemotherapy, and has been recovering for the last four weeks. She has fever and her blood counts are low.

Update as of August 31, 2011. Vika walks better, although she limps on her right foot. As soon as her blood counts recovered, we were allowed to go home to rest between chemotherapy cycles. During the ten days at home, Vika started eating her regular food again.
On August 25th she started a new chemotherapy cycle and she got intestinal problems right away.
At home Vika got new glasses, as she developed severe farsightedness. We are very grateful to forum members from St. Petersburg Parents community - their donations allowed us to buy glasses!
Vika's mom

Update as of September 22, 2011. Vika is done with another anti-relapse chemotherapy course. After the blood counts had dropped the girl's condition got a lot worse: very high fever, problems with mucosae, bad nausea. At present Vika's condition is a little better but the blood counts remain very low, that's why she needs blood transfusion.

Update as of October 14, 2011. On October 6 Vika had her tumor removed. The surgery was very complicated and large scale, the girl had several transfusions of irradiated blood. On the seventh day after the surgery the ultrasound showed that the whole of the tumor had been removed and everything is fine.
Vika is going to have her epidural catheter removed shortly. The doctors' decision was to start preparing Vika for a haploidentical bone marrow transplantation.

Update as of October 22, 2011. Vika feels much better. Epidural catheter and drainage were removed and she no longer needs painkillers. On the 14th day post-surgery the stitches were taken out. Vika is now at home. On Monday, October 24th, the date of transplantation will be decided. She may need one more cycle of chemotherapy at Municipal hospital No. 31.

Update as of November 10, 2011. Unfortunately, three weeks after surgery, new metastases appeared. Vika was referred for maintenance chemotherapy and will be monitored at the day hospital. Vika is fatigued and gets tired easily. Clinical trial protocols are under discussion. Despite fatigue, Vika enjoyed visiting a circus.

Update as of December 18, 2011. The doctors from the Raisa Gorbacheva Institute of Children's Hematology and Transplantology prescribed a course of high dose chemotherapy. The first block was very hard for Vika, she had a high fever and a severe intoxication. Now Vika is feeling better, and most importantly, she responds to the treatment: the tumor became twice smaller and there are no new foci. The girl is now administered the next chemotherapy course.

Update as of January 25, 2012. Vika underwent the third cycle of chemotherapy and she feels rather well. CT scan showed reduction of tumor mass, and she only has one of four previously seen lesions remaining, which has fluid in it. In 2-3 weeks Vika will undergo repeat CT scan and further treatment will be determined.

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