Many of you are wondering, “What the heck just happened? Angelina was fine on Friday morning and cancer-stricken on Friday night.”

GOOD question.

On Friday morning. September 28, Angelina went in to have her central line removed. That same day (and for days beforehand) she complained about a pain in her abdomen. Mom and dad demanded an ultrasound, and that is when doctors discovered that the cancer had returned in the form of three tumors–one on her liver (9 cm), one on her lungs (3 cm) and one on her kidney (3 cm).

Doctors at the hospital where she has been treated the last 13 months said there was nothing else they could do for her. They recommended that the family find a new facility. So we did.

Angelina is in a specialized hospital for children with cancer. All day yesterday and today, she’s been dragged through the same initial prodding and poking that she endured back when we first discovered she had cancer in August 2011.

THANKFULLY, she has the gene required for her to receive a new kind of chemotherapy. After receiving radiation therapy to help shrink her largest tumor, she is right now fully sedated with tape on her eyes and tubes in her mouth.

Doctors and nurses have to get Angelina to breathe on her own before they can continue to help her.

THANK GOD she has this specific gene! THANK GOD doctors are working fast to help her. THANK you for praying. Keep praying! Ask God for full healing–supernaturally or naturally, whichever comes first!!

We will keep you all posted. THANK you for caring!!

We have bad news and we may have really bad news.

Yesterday, we announced that doctors were removing the center line tube (or “tubie”) from Angelina’s chest. It’s been there for 13 months, providing for her a way of treatment.

When doctors were about to remove it, Angelina was struck with a fever, and since it’s a risk to sedate someone who has a fever, they have NOT removed it.

And in that same hospital visit, we were told even worse news: THE CANCER MIGHT BE BACK.

Months ago, preliminary test results showed no cancer, and that’s what we believed even yesterday. But new results have revealed that the cancer Angelina has been rigorously and tirelessly fighting has returned. It’s recurrent.

Here’s the breakdown: doctors believe it has spread to her liver, lungs and kidneys with the biggest growth being 9 cm (the original monster from August 2011 was 11 cm). They’ve classified this as stage 4. 

How’s the family doing? We’re broken. We’re angry. We’re confused. This is almost harder than the original news of her cancer. It’s like we saw the oasis after 13 months of struggling in a desert disappear before our very eyes.

BUT

We keep fighting! Pick your heads! We have to go back to battle for a while, but it’s okay. We are experienced now and we know the rules. We are trained for the up and downs. We are conditioned for the long days and nights. We have our God who will be our partner through this fight.

As excruciating as this news is, we can’t give up. Now now.

Please pray for the family. Join us in our sadness and our prayers. Pray God would indeed remove the traces of cancer completely. Pray God would heal Angelina like Jesus did so many times for others.

We’ll update you again when we find out more. THANK YOU all. We love you.

Sorry about the mixup guys.

After much consideration, we’ve decided to keep the Little Angelina engine roaring, so we can keep you posted on what’s new and so Angelina can look back at all the love sent her way.

Near the end of November 2012, Angelina will be done with her treatments. Except for the occasional hospital visit for check ups, she’ll no longer have to suffer the pain of her treatments.

This being the case, we will also close down LittleAngelina.org, her GoFundMe, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

We are SO THANKFUL for your financial, prayerful and practical support!! This has been an extraordinary year where we got to see people from ALL OVER THE WORLD empathize with Angelina and then act because of it.

And so, if you’re looking to continue financially helping pay for Angelina’s medical bills, you can continue to do so until we close down her GoFundMe account.

http://www.gofundme.com/LittleAngelina

THANK YOU!

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By Franco Sforza, one of Angelina’s uncles.

Today, August 18t, 2012 marks the one year anniversary of Angelina’s diagnosis of stage three, high risk neuroblastoma. We were all in shock, not knowing what lied ahead for little Angelina.

Some of us cried. Some just didn’t speak. All the while Angelina was playing with toys, not realizing the severity of the deadly softball-size tumor that had attached to her liver. Doctors told us what was needed in order to hopefully shrink and remove it: six rounds of chemo plus one very intense round, multiple surgeries, radiation, and, to tope it off, another six rounds of immunotherapy. Watching her endure all this pain was painful in itself but necessary.

Then we got to enjoy tons of fun-filled and emotional fundraisers, visits to the hospital, watching her be her amazing, adorable self: singing, loving and kissing.

This brings us to today. Angelina has one final round of immunotherapy in the hospital and one at home. If all scans are clear, she finally can have her central line removed from her chest.

With God’s grace and all the love, support, and positive energy she has been surrounded by, we believe that is what has been curing her. For those of you that have never met her, all we can say is this special, special child has something about her that’s made us look at life in a whole different way. She makes you appreciate the little things in life. She’s full of so much love!

And those of you who have met her know what we’re talking about.