My Brain Tumor Story

Oh  where to begin,  I guess I will start with me first being diagnosed with Epilepsy when I
was six months old.  My seizures come the left frontal and temporal lobes.  I had a CT
scan when I was six months old to find out what was causeing the siezures.  My mom was
told that there was nothing abnormal just a few abnormal signals but nothing more was ever
said about it.  when i started walking at elevens months my mom and granny noticed that I
had problems lifting my left foot when I walked and that when I ran I carried myself as if
I had a stroke.  So my mom asked the pediatrician about it and she said she did not see
anything abnormal but my mom and granny knew that something was not right.  Finally
after switching peds and neurologists we finally got a neurologists that listened.  At
eighteen months I had my first MRI.  My neuro, Dr. Charlette Jones found a large apricot
size tumor on my Thalamus and Basal Ganglia on the right side of my brain.  She
referred us to a local neurosurgeon who told us that the tumor was inoperable and that I
had less than a year to live.  My mom, granny and papa were devasted at the news and
started looking for a new neurosurgeon.  That is when Dr Jones referred us to Dr Kerry
Crone at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.  Dr Crone said that he had
developed a new procedure that would allow him to reach the tumor and remove it.  On Oct
30, 2001 I was the first child to have the Balloon Trackotomy.  They inserted a
balloon cathater into my brain and filling it with saline over a week's time to create a tunnel
down to the tumor.  On Nov 06, 2001 I had the surgery to remove the tumor.  They
went through the tunnel they created and removed  100% of the tumor in a 9hr surgery.  I
woke from the surgery paralyzed on the left side of my body.   I walked on my own one
month after surgery.  I still have yet to regain the use of my left hand but am working at it
everyday.  I also have Hemiparesis and Homonymous Hemianopsia (missing the left half
of vision in each eye).  I also have speech delays and some sensory issues.  I have another
tumor sitting at the base where they removed the first tumor but the tumor is shrinking on
its own.  we are still not all that sure what type of tumor it was/is.  All that we were told
was that it was a rare tumor, that it had cells that they had not seen before and that it was
a combination of a Ganglioglioma and Mixed Glioma.

I have only had the two surgeries to remove the tumor and then I had another surgery to
remove the artificial plates and rivots in my head because I had an allergic reaction to
them and my head where the scar is swelled up like a big water balloon//
I have not let any of this stand in my way of enjoying life to the fullest and can do
pretty much everything any five year old can do.  Oh I forgot, I am five years old and
have been a Brain Tumor Survivor for 3three years and eight months.  I plan on
continuing to beat the odds and prove all the doctors wrong and to show everyone that I
can do it::)

"...For with God all things are possible."  Mark 10:27