DATE OF BIRTH:  December 27th, 2006

 ILLNESS:  Fibrosarcoma of tongue and mouth    

A Big, Big Thankyou

To all that contributed to Riley’s quilt.

As you can see Riley loves his quilt. His sister has pointed out all the different cars to him and all the bright colours. It’s just the loveliest quilt we have seen and have been showing it to everyone along with all the little stories on all the quilters.

It will d efinitely get used, as you can see Riley likes his toys on it, but more importantly when we stay over night in hospital it will be with us.

Riley is doing well at the moment. After undergoing four surgeries to remove the cancer, each time the margins would not be clear and the tumor would grow rapidly, we are hoping that it is gone now. He will have to wait until June 2008 before given the all clear and before he can have any reconstructive surgery done. He did have a tracheotomy tube put in but thankfully that has been taken out now, though as you can also see he still has a feeding tube. It’s a little hard to swallow without a tongue, though he is learning and does love his food.

The months spent in hospital had slowed his development a little. He has just begun crawling, though he keeps his left leg tucked up under him which we think he is protecting as he had many needles put into this foot. All in time we know he will catch up.

Once again thankyou all for the lovely quilt. It is people like yourselves that really make a difference in others lives.

Love Delainie (Riley’s mum)

     BIOGRAPHY      

Riley was born with an enlarged tongue which protruded about an inch out of his mouth. The doctors diagnosed this as a hemangioma and took him straight to Princess Margaret Hospital to begin treatment. They gave him oral and injected steriods but the growth continued to get larger. Soon it was effecting his ability to breath and feed so they decided to remove some of it via surgery. It was from this surgery that a routine biopsy was done and no one in Australia was able to make a clear diagnosis of the mass. They sent it to a leading child pathologist in America who diagnosed Rilay with mainly Fibrosarcoma intertwined with other sarcoma's in his tongue and the floor of his mouth.

Riley has undergone 3 months of intense chemotherapy on an experimental basis, but unfortunately this has not made much difference to the tumor. He is now going to undergo surgery again at the end of June to have his tongue, the floor of his mouth and possibly his larynx removed, with us all hoping that all the cancer is removed with it.

Riley is our little angel. He has endured so much since the minute he was born but he never stopped smiling, bringing so much delight to everyone who meets him. Our dream for him is to beat this dreaded cancer and keep on smiling.

Written by Riley’s Mum