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We
are the Trieb family. Back in 1995, our
youngest child of three, Melissa
("Missy") was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer
called "Neuroblastoma". We were devistated by this diagnosis
that we received here in Baltimore at Sinai Hospital. After immediately
beginning very aggressive rounds of chemotherapy at Sinai, we began
researching numerous other protocols that were designed to potentially
"cure" this terminal cancer. We found ourselves jumping from
area hospital to hospital – and finally ending our search and
beginning new and highly experimental treatments at Johns Hopkins
Hospital. After months of more chemotherapy, surgery to remove as much
of the tumor as possible, radiation therapy and an autologous bone
marrow/stem-cell transplant that drained our family both emotionally and
financially. But, whatever it took to cure our sweet daughter was OK by
us. Our social worker introduced us to an agency pretty early on called
"Children’s Roads to Recovery". We were told that the Polk
family also had endured aggressive treatment for neuroblastoma at Johns
Hopkins for their son, Christopher. After speaking to them directly
regarding medical issues and family issues, their agency had agreed to
help us financially with parking coupons (for Johns Hopkins garages
which were quite costly), gasoline coupons at local Crown Gas Stations,
as well as food coupons inside the hospital. This was SO incredibly
wonderful – and oh-so-helpful. After our daughter’s treatments ended
she went into remission for 22 months; however, we were still returning
to the hospital on monthly visits and tri-monthly re-staging/scan
schedules. Again, Children’s Roads to Recovery were helpful to us in
the above-mentioned ways. Our journey did not complete at this point.
Our daughter relapsed with neuroblastoma once again and we needed to
re-investigate our options and protocols that are constantly being
tested and revised all over the country. We found that a wonderful
hospital in New York City,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) was the place to help
"cure" our child once again. Unfortunately, this time, the
travel expenses to and from Manhattan/NYC were astronomical for a family
struggling with medical and everyday living expenses. Again, thankfully,
Children’s Roads to Recovery helped us by providing us with costly
round-trip AMTRAK tickets from Baltimore to NYC via the NorthEast
Direct. We were so grateful that CRTR was there to help us out … I don’t
believe we would have been able to do all that we did for our child if
not for Vivian, Mike and the rest of CRTR. Our story does not have a
happy ending as we had lost our beloved Melissa on November 5, 1999. She
was fighting her third battle against the dreaded neuroblastoma beast.
Nonetheless, our family will ALWAYS remain thankful to CRTR for
their heartfelt caring and generosity. We have promised to return the
help by remaining active in their events and fundraisers that can help
to build their financial base for other families that are in desperate
need. We have currently outright directed our employer’s United Way
contribution (from our paychecks) to Children’s Roads to Recovery; you
may want to look into this generous offering as well!
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