Naufal, Road to Recovery

Naufal, Road to Recovery

Spare some time to read this. Spare even a Dollar (RM3.99) to help Naufal, road to recovery.

This boy is only 9 years old, but he is already the strongest boy that we have ever known! Naufal was diagnosed with cancer called Medulablastoma (Brain Cancer) at the age of 2 years and 3 months old, nothing more heart-shattering like a mirror glass are to his parents. Their first born, the heart of the family was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at early age. From an active young boy, running around all over the place to suddenly becoming bedridden all day without energy.

Chemotherapy. A big word. Naufal had to undergo treatments even at that early stage, the same procedure for all cancer patients, adult or not. 28 cycles of chemotherapy from 2010 until 2011 and he had to be admitted to the hospital 2 weeks once to complete the chemotherapy cycle. The worst thing was the impact of the chemotherapy that we started to notice after his first cycle. The nausea and hair falling were all visible, but as strong as he is, he never complained, what more to cry. What else can a kid at that age has to say, what he wants is his Mommy, Daddy, and his toy cars; to be specific Lighting McQueen. He is so in love with Lightning McQueen, he even called himself as Lightning McQueen.

Once the full cycle of chemotherapy was completed, MRI results showed that the treatment didn’t slowed down the cancer, but the cancer in his brain grew bigger instead. Next step for Naufal’s recovery was Radiotherapy. Can you imagine radiotherapy for a kid that age, which is unbearable even for adults! He was 4 years old when he started radiotherapy, and then our heart broke once again, he relapses and had to be admitted in ICU for almost a week. Only God knows how we felt at the moment when the doctor broke the news that there’s nothing more that he could do. We have to pray for the best. The thought of losing him is unbearable. But God knows more than us. Naufal is super strong and as days goes by, he recovered slowly. Then, the doctor continues with the treatment. Radiotherapy was completed with 37 cycles aimed directly on his right side of his brain - EVERYDAY!

The effect of radiotherapy is unimaginable. We slowly lost Naufal that we know. He lost his speech vocabulary and could not make out perfect sentences anymore. He couldn’t call his Mommy and Daddy anymore. He slowly can’t walk. There were burn marks all over his head. It was devastating but whatever happens, we still love him. Our love for him is as big as the universe could be! We cherished every moment that we could have with him. But there is a silver lining after these unfortunate events that broke our heart. Within 6 months of completing his radiotherapy cycle, MRI results showed that the cancer had shrunk. Since then, he was monitored once in every 6 months and subsequent MRI results came out the same. Therefore, the doctor concluded that the cancer is gone and he is free from cancer since 2013! All of us are happy for him. At least we have him here with us.

Since his recovery, Naufal has lived his life and he is the happiest kid. That is our life goal. We provide only the best for him. He walks with his knee - I guess he felt more comfortable that way and on wheelchair if we bring him out. He talks like a 2-year old kid – muttering. But his Mommy understands him – motherly instinct! He eats baby food and porridge. He has his own ways for playing with us. He keeps holding on to his Car – Lighting Mcqueen. If anyone tries to get the car away from him he will get angry. We even threw a Lighting McQueen themed birthday party for him – thanks to MAKE A WISH MALAYSIA for making it happen! We will do everything in our power to make him happy.

But again, that is not the end of Naufal’s story. By 2015, he got diagnosed with Epilepsy. The doctor put him on epilepsy medication until now, which makes him really weak. He sleeps most of the time, he won’t eat, not even walk. Then things started to go wrong again, he was diagnosed with pneumonia – a virus infection in his lungs. He’s been in and out of ICU since July 2017, Oct 2017 and the most recent one in Dec 2017 until today (11/1/2018). This is the worst condition of Naufal since his cancer treatment. It breaks our heart again to see him on the ICU bed with no words, difficult to breathe (he had to breathe through oxygen mask 24 hours), and as of last week, the doctor decided to put him in induced coma, so that he won’t be in pain. He is also on tube feeding! As of yesterday, he has shown improvements; he’s no longer on morphine and the doctor has reduced the level of oxygen intake to see if he could breathe on his own. He still needs the oxygen to help him breath but it’s low. But the most beautiful thing of all is that he is awake and is responsive to his surroundings.

If you are reading this and want him to get back to his family, to his baby sister who misses and loves him dearly, we would really appreciate if you could PRAY for us and if possible, spare a dollar to help him in his brave quest for recovery and help the parents on the hospital bills and in prividing Naufal the best supplements for his full recovery! Thank you again for your time to read this. If you have any concerns or questions regarding Naufal’s condition, please do not hesitate to contact the dad, Nazrin or the mom, Aqmarissa. Lots of love!