As a toddler, Carly Rivers had a little tummy, what her mom Marty calls a pot belly. Her twin Kyla didn’t. “We just thought Carly was a little chubby,” says mom.
The two-year-old had been passing blood clots, which were diagnosed as urinary tract infections. But when she developed a small knot that protruded from her stomach, Marty and Carly’s dad Tommy, grew alarmed.
Their pediatrician ordered an ultrasound and referred them to pediatric surgeon Dr. Robyn Hatley at MCGHealth Children’s Medical Center, who admitted Carly to the children’s hospital that day.
When a resident came in Carly’s room the next morning and said she was with the oncology team, Marty says her “mind started racing, and what they said after that was a blur. I asked them, ‘Are you telling me my daughter has cancer?’ It took two weeks for me to grasp the situation.”
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