An 11-year-old girl who was the object of a massive benefit at Rockdale’s KC Hall two months ago has made the best kind of news imaginable.
Roxli Doss is cancer free.
The diagnosis has made worldwide news since a story in USA Today was published Saturday, quoting a Dell Children’s Hospital physician as saying the situation is “actually unbelievable.”
Some of the finest doctors in the world can’t explain what happened.
But the Doss family can.
“We kept on praying and just had faith that God was in control and, oh my goodness, was he ever,” Denice Doss, Roxli’s grandmother, said.
DIAGNOSIS—Roxli is the daughter of Scott and Gena Doss of Kyle and granddaughter of James and Denice Doss of Rock-dale.
Denice Doss is a former office manager for the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce and has been involved in numerous civic and school events over many decades.
The devastating diagnosis was made in June when physicians determined Roxli had an inoperable brain tumor called “diffuse intrinsic pontine glaucoma,” shortened to DIPG.
“When you get news like that, you just want to crawl in a hole and quit,” Denice Doss said. “But none of us did that. We just kept on praying.
It wasn’t a “one-doctor” diagnosis either. Scott Doss said Dell Children’s, Texas Children’s Dana Farber, Johns Hopkins and MD Anderson agreed the disease was DIPG.
Roxli began radiation treatment although there is no cure for DIPG.
And then.....
SHRINKING—DIPG patients manifest a number of problems, including decreased ability to swallow, sometimes vision loss, decreased ability to talk and eventual difficulty in breathing.
But after four weeks of the six-week radiation treatment things began to turn around.
“The lab techs, the radiologist, everybody was saying they knew the tumor was shrinking,” Denice Doss said. “And Roxli wasn’t any of the problems associated with DIPG.”
At the end of October there was a massive benefit for the family to help alleviate medical bills.
The KC Hall was packed with a barbecue sale and scores of items, which were auctioned in live and silent auctions.
A total of $40,114.50 was raised.
SURE-SHOT—Something else happened that weekend.
It was the special youth deer-hunting weekend in Texas and Roxli not only felt well enough to go she shot her first deer at her grandparents’ ranch at Pleasant Grove.
That led up to the events of the past few weeks. Roxli got another MRI scam.
The tumor was essentially gone.
“When I first saw Roxli’s MRI scan, it was actually unbelievable,” Dr. Virginia Harrod of Dell’s Children Medical Center in Austin, said. “The tumor is undetectable on the MRI scan, which is really unusual.”
There were tears, this time tears of joy.
PRAYER—Doctors said they have no explanation why the tumor disappeared.
But the Doss family attributes the turnaround to prayer, lots of it.
“We just keep praying,” Denice Doss said. “And we were not alone. So many people supported us. We kept getting cards, emails, information from so many folks from all over who said we were on their prayer lists.”
“We just kept lifting her up and other people truly did the same,” she added.
Scott and Gena Doss said doctors double checked Roxli’s scans just to make sure. They continue to watch her closely and she is continuing to undergo treatments like immunotherapy as a precaution.
And Roxli?
She continues to do the what she loves best, horseback riding.
“She is just as active as she ever was,” Scott Doss said. “She’s doing awesome.”
The family has a GoFund-Me account set up to help with continuing medical bills.
It can be accessed at https://www.gofundme.com/roxstar-medical.
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