10/24/25

With an IV finally in place they were able to draw some labs to begin ruling out certain cancers like Leukemia and neuroblastoma. Orders were also placed for a CT scan to help determine where the cancer had originated from and if it had spread anywhere. Zeke is a very strong boy so there were discussions between the oncology team and anesthesia about putting Zeke to sleep for the CT scan. Zeke had tested positive for Rhinovirus (common cold) so they had draw backs with sedating him (understandably). They opted to attempt the scan without sedation. Yaro held Zeke’s arms while they slid him into the scanner once and then a second time after the contrast was injected.

The Wilms tumor has a high likelihood of spreading to the lungs and surrounding organs so a CT scan of the lungs, abdomen and pelvis was done. After the CT we were sent back to our room to await results.

Around 4pm, the oncologist assigned to us had come into our room to discuss the findings of the CT. He stated that Zeke’s pathology of his kidneys was a little odd due to him having a condition called “horseshoe kidney”. This was not something that we were aware Zeke had. We later found out that Zeke’s kidneys were hard to visiualize on any of his in utero scans therefore that’s why the horseshoe kidney was never found. The tumor/mass is on the “isthmus” of the horseshoe kidney and is 3 inches in size. So far the tumor was confined to only the kidney with no spread to the lungs, lymph nodes, or surrounding organs. Praise God!

There are a total of 4 teams that are working on Zeke’s case; hematology/oncology, pediatric urology, nephrology, and pediatric surgery. These 4 teams will work together to confirm a diagnosis and come up with Zeke’s treatment plan.