So is a nine-year-old boy from Thailand. He lives with his parents, sister and brother in a village in Tak Province. His father works at a construction site, and his mother is a homemaker. Since schools closed due to Covid-19, So and his siblings have stopped studying. So now helps out around the house, watering their garden and helping his mother with preparing meals. His sister works as a dishwasher at a Thai noodle soup shop. The family’s monthly household income is just enough to cover their basic expenses.
After So’s birth, the medic noticed that So had a mass on the right side of his neck. When the medic pressed the mass with his finger, So did not react and the medic assumed the mass was not painful. The medic then told So’s parents that the mass was fatty tissue and that they had nothing to worry about. However, he would need to receive surgery to remove the mass when he was older. As So grew older, the mass also slowly increased in size. Currently, the muscles in his neck are stiff and the mass is painful when it is touched. Frequently, So will wake up in the middle of the night in pain after he turns in his sleep, putting pressure on the mass. He feels like the mass is gradually increasing in size and is becoming heavier.
Doctors want So to undergo a CT scan, a procedure in which x-ray images taken from several angles are combined to produce cross-sectional images of the body. This scan will hopefully help doctors diagnose his condition and formulate an appropriate treatment plan. Our medical partner, Burma Children Medical Fund, is requesting $414 to cover the cost of So’s CT scan and care, which is scheduled for March 9th.
So shared, “I have wanted to remove this mass since I was five years old because my friends tease me a lot. Sometimes, I get very frustrated. I will be much happier once I go through this procedure.”