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Prayers needed for a friend

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
A good friend of mine has had a rough go with her children. Her oldest was born with asbergers syndrome and requires special attention. He's now 6. Her youngest son is 3. He was taken into the hospital this past weekend with flu like symptoms accompanied with dizziness. They did an MRI and found a golf ball sized tumor near his brain stem. They are currently doing more testing to see if it is operable and whether or not it is cancerous. :sad:

I'll update as I get info but he really needs all the prayers he can get right now.

The following info taken from wikipedia

Treatment and prognosis[edit source]

Treatment typically consists of radiotherapy and steroids for palliation of symptoms.[citation needed] Radiotherapy may result in minimally extended survival time.[citation needed] Prognosis is very poor, with only 37% of treated patients surviving one year or more.[citation needed] Topotecan has been studied in the treatment of brainstem glioma,[citation needed] otherwise, chemotherapy is probably ineffective, though further study is needed.[2]
 

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
That really sucks. Kids shouldn't have these sorts of things. :(

Prayers being sent.
 

BigAl

Gone But Not Forgotten
SUPER Site Supporter
Nothing can break your heart faster than a hurt or sick child . May God protect them .
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
So sad.
Good thoughts and prayers on the way.
 

Danang Sailor

nullius in verba
GOLD Site Supporter
Asperger's can be very trying to deal with depending on the severity, and then to have another young one with a brain
tumor? Horrid! We know Asperger's very well; prayers will be sent for the entire family.

 

Leni

Active member
My daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 17. Very rare, only 10 people a year are diagnosed with it. At the time there were no survivers and surgery had been attempted starting ony 2 years before. She is the first surviver of this cancer. There isn't anything worse than being told that your beautiful, popular and straight A child is going to die.

My heart goes out to your friend and my prayers are for her and her children. I just hope that the outcome is better for her son. Teresa had so much radiation that she now functions at the 10 year old level. She cannot live alone and takes a lot of medication.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
This just in......today he had a hearing and swallowing assesment. Both were normal which means the tumor at this point hasn't noticeably damaged the nerves that control those functions.
 

Leni

Active member
Good. The brain stem is a very important part of the brain. A lot of basic functions are controlled there.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
My daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 17. Very rare, only 10 people a year are diagnosed with it. At the time there were no survivers and surgery had been attempted starting ony 2 years before. She is the first surviver of this cancer. There isn't anything worse than being told that your beautiful, popular and straight A child is going to die.

My heart goes out to your friend and my prayers are for her and her children. I just hope that the outcome is better for her son. Teresa had so much radiation that she now functions at the 10 year old level. She cannot live alone and takes a lot of medication.

Oh Leni. That's terrible. My heart goes out to you and your family. THey say that what doesn't break you makes you stronger. You guys must have immense strength in you then. :flowers:
 

Leni

Active member
She lives with us and every now and then we just have to get away. She goes to adult day care three days a week. She loves going there. One of these days I'll have to find someplace for her to live. She slowly but surely is getting worse.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
I can think of nothing more painful than the helplessness of watching any child suffer.

Prayers offered for both cases highlighted here.
 

Dmorency

Member
GOLD Site Supporter
My prayer to you all also.These stories are so sad.
Makes you wonder why innocent children must suffer, when there are so many evil and cruel people living healthy lives. God works in strange ways.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
The next few hours will be stressful for sure. They bumped up the surgery a few hours this morning as they are expecting to be in the OR most of the day with him. At this point theres no telling how he'll be when and if he makes it through this.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Here's the little guy this morning as a nurse talks to him about what is going to happen to him today.
 

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Leni

Active member
Adorable child. Those hours when my daughter was in surgery were the longest of my life. 9:00 to 3:30 PM. I will be thinking of his mom today.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well, he made it through surgery but it was as feared. The tumor was cancerous. They have a long road ahead of them. This was reported by his dad....

He is on his way to the CCU. They will wake him up there and remove the breathing tube. The surgeon is confident that he got all of the tumor and that there was no major damage to any of his cranial nerves. Assuming he wakes up ok, we are still facing chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and there is the possibility that down the road he needs another surgery to remove any bits they didn't get. This war isn't over, but I think we've won the first battle.
 

Leni

Active member
They did not use chemo on Teresa because of the brain/blood barrier. I was told that the chemo would not reach the tumor. Of course that was 30 years ago.

Tell your friends to be very careful about how much radiation they give him. Her onocologist used so much that it burned out her brain. Also be aware that since they will be irradiating his head, he will need special dental treatment. Radiation reduces the blood vessels. He can lose all of his teeth if they are not careful. There are dentists that specialize in treating people who have had radiation to the head. We learned about this from a ham radio friend of my husbands who lost his teeth as a result.

Tell them that the doctors aren't always right. I was told that there was no hope for my daughter. She is now 47 years old.

Also they should look into support groups. There is nothing like talking to someone who has been there.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Seems that prayers do work. He just came through a follow up MRI and the scans looked great. Surgeon said that they got all the tumor and theres no damage to his brain stem. Time will tell I guess.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yes. It is good news for now. He still has to go through the chemo and radiation treatments. Thanks everyone for the prayers and support. I just hate standing by watching someone so young and innocent go through this. Breaks my heart.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Got some not so good news. Though he's recovering from the first surgery pretty good, he now suffers from hearing loss in one ear. His neck is very stiff at this point and they are doing some physio with him to help this. He had another MRI which confirmed that a small peice of tumor remains in his brain. He will be starting 7 weeks of chemo followed by 7 weeks of radiation.
 
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