Claire is a feisty 22-month-old, who loves puzzles, reading books, painting with watercolors, and of course Frozen. Claire currently lives in Hawaii with her mom, dad, and big sister. Claire’s mom and dad are both originally from Texas but are currently stationed in Hawaii thanks to dad being a pilot in the USAF.
Claire has just begun her cancer journey. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 liver cancer on September 3, 2020, at 22 months old. Claire’s mom and dad noticed her abdomen was hard on the right side under her rib cage on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 1st. Wednesday morning she was seen by her pediatrician who immediately sent her for an ultrasound which revealed a large mass on her liver. On Thursday, Claire had an MRI and CT scan to confirm the diagnosis. Claire is still waiting on biopsy results to confirm the diagnosis of a hepatoblastoma tumor. While rare, making up only 1% of pediatric cancer cases, hepatoblastomas are responsive to treatment including chemo and surgery. As soon as Claire’s biopsy results are available, she’ll start chemo to shrink the tumor. Once the tumor has shrunk enough for her surgeon to remove without damaging the healthy part of her liver, she’ll have surgery followed by additional rounds of chemo. Claire will be receiving treatment at Tripler Army Medical Center and will hopefully be done with treatment by the beginning of 2021.
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