She had been complaining of pain in her left knee and had developed a large lump on her left buttock. Instead, we left with instructions for her to eat nothing, since she was going to be sedated the following morning for some scans at the hospital. From that point on, things happened very fast. I remember only bits and pieces of those first few days at the hospital. I was told that Cassandra had rhabdomyosarcoma, that the following day they would do a biopsy and implant a central catheter, and that chemotherapy would be started as soon as possible.
Most parents react to their concerns by taking their child to a doctor.
Sometimes the diagnosis is not as easy and fast as Cassandra's. When Hailee was a baby, we noticed that sometimes her eye appeared white and sometimes it looked reddish. We were worried, but the pediatrician said that she was healthy. He eventually gave us a referral to see an ophthalmologist when we insisted. Since he didn't feel it was an emergency, it took three months to see the eye specialist, who diagnosed her unilateral retinoblastoma.