A Connecticut mom's concern over her 4-year-old daughter Elena’s toothache soon turned into every parent's worst nightmare. Sarah Lappostato, 35, started to notice some swelling behind Elena’s lower-left molar. "My initial thought was that she had a tooth coming in, but that didn’t make sense because she had all of her baby teeth already," Lappostato told Newsweek.
"Then I thought maybe there was some sort of infection happening." Lappostato, who shares Elena and 7-year-old Flora with husband Antonino, 37, called the pediatrician first thing in the morning to discuss whether her daughter’s tooth pain needed to be evaluated. The nurse advised Sarah to take Elena to the dentist where she had an X-ray on the same day. The X-rays showed a pocket of debris, such as crunchy food that had been stuck under Elena’s gums, and the family was referred to an oral surgeon.
"The oral surgeon was not concerned," Sarah explained. "He agreed it could be a pocket of debris or perhaps a dentigerous cyst. He told us to watch for any changes and follow up in six weeks." Meanwhile, Elena continued to play soccer and enjoy hikes with her family, but the mouth pain persisted.
Sarah noticed that she was also tired all the time. The fatigue concerned Sarah, but because Elena had received her flu shot earlier that week, during another phone call to the nurse the fatigue was put down to a reaction to the vaccine. However, Elena was so tired that Sarah couldn’t get her out of bed.
She had also developed unexplained bruising around her eyes. "I knew something more was happening," Sarah said. "I called the pediatrician for an urgent same-day appointment and was seen within an hour." By this point, their pediatrician was concerned and sent the family to the emergency room, where blood tests raised concerns about cancer.
Then came the life-changing news: doctors discovered a softball-sized mass in Elena’s abdomen. "Getting to the ER was a blur," Sarah said. "I remember it in bits and pieces like I was moving in tunnel-vision.
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