Adi Varga
Adi Varga
5 years old
Stage 4 Neuroblastoma
Simi Valley, CA, United States
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/adi
Our Story
Adi was born on July 6, 2003 to a poor woman in Romania. She was unable to care for him so she left him at the hospital. At 2 months of age, Adi was taken into a private orphanage in Marghita, Romania. At the age of 17 months, Adi got very sick. He had high fevers, was pale and lethargic. The staff from the orphanage took Adi to the doctor and she ran a blood test on him. She discovered he was severely anemic and set him to the Children's Hopsital in Oradea, Romania (one hour away). Upon arrival there, he had a hemoglobin level of 6.6 (normal is between 11-18). Further tests were run and they discovered the 8cm tumor on his left adrenal gland. In early December 2004, Adi was then diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma. He had the primary tumor with bone marrow involvement as well. Just after diagnosis, I (Kari -Adi's soon to be adoptive mom) got involved with all of his care. Adi has been living with me since then and I stayed by his side throughout his whole treatment. He was alone in the hospital until I got involved and I couldn't stand the thought of him being alone. Although it has been a long, hard road, that was the best decision I ever made. Adi went through 13 rounds of chemotherapy, surgery to remove the tumor, numerous blood transfusions and one year of accutane. He has been NED since May 2005 but he has only been off treatment since Dec. 2006. In December 2005, we were able to leave Romania for a month and go visit family in California for Christmas. We also were blessed to be seen by a specialist in Neuroblastoma at the City of Hope. Unfortunately due to the lack of aggressive treatment, he gave Adi an 80% chance of relapse. It is hard not to worry and live in constant fear but I know that God is the ultimate healer and He is our strength. If Adi would relapse, God would give us the strength to beat it again. I pray that day never comes. We are still in Romania until the adoption is complete (hopefully by next summer). Then we plan to move back to Southern California to better doctors and hospitals and good follow up care. We have a very hard time with doctors here and the follow up care is pretty much non-existent. Thank you to everyone giving to Lunch for Life! Giving up your lunch just may save some lives!
Thank you
Thanks for your donation to Lunch for Life! Your donation has the power to save so many lives, including Adi's! We can't thank you enough for donating in honor of Adi! Love, Kari and Adi