Natalia and Her Battle with Medulloblastoma Leptomeringeal Metastasis

Collin is an 7 year old girl who unfortunately has to go through a terrible thing that is Cancer. Here is her story, shared by her mother, Erika Mercado-Cruz about her diagnosis and treatment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natalia is 7 years old. Natalia was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma Leptomeringeal Metastasis. On Father’s Day this year I was told by her pediatrician to take her to the emergency room so they can do a MRI scan of her head prior to that she was feeling sick which we thought was a stomach virus so when we got to the emergency room on Father’s Day, they did an MRI scan and there was the tumor in her brain. Ever since then, everything went fast hill. That Monday she had a full body scan, which then showed that it had spread into her spine and that Wednesday she had the surgery to remove the tumor from her brain. She recovered well then had to go get a port put in her and in July she had to start radiation every day for six weeks And chemo every Wednesday for the six weeks that we was in New York. We were staying at the Ronald McDonald House in New York, we made the best of it even though she missed her family and now she is getting her four other chemo treatments at Yale Children’s Hospital and that’s for six months. When Natalia had to start staying at the hospital they had introduced her to Legos and with the donations of Legos that Block of hope gives to the children hospitals Natalia hospital stays are a little easier since her mind is focused on bother Lego set. Natalia loves the color, purple and pink. Natalia loves to go to Disney Natalia loves her Disney villains. She loves to dance and despite everything that she’s going through, she always keeps a smile on her face.

What Blocks of hope does for these other children donating Legos to them is amazing.