Brain Tumor Awareness Ribbon

Alyssa Medical History

Alyssa is now 10 years old and is in the 4th grade.

In the beginning of May 05’ when Alyssa was 6 and in Kindergarten, she was not feeling good. She had the stomach flu or what we thought was the stomach flu. She had a headache, was vomiting and was real tired. She missed a week of school. She felt better and went to school the following week but she was very tired and weak. On Saturday of that week she woke up and vomited but did not do it again until the end of the day. We thought she was getting a touch of the flu back. We took her to the doctor on Monday and they said she had a virus. That week she continued to vomit occasionally and was very tired and complained of a headache on one side. Her right eye looked a little swollen and she was squinting it by the end of the week. I contacted Dr. McMillan on Friday and she told us to get a sinus x-ray and come in to the office. We went in and saw Dr. Hornick. He listened carefully to the symptoms and told us to go to the hospital and get a CT scan immediately! We went to Akron Children’s Hospital and had the CT scan done and then were told the results! To our shock they said there was a tumor on her brain!!!! It was in the 4^th ventricle. She also had hydrocephalus. She was admitted that night and was scheduled for brain surgery to remove the tumor on Monday, 5/23/05. The tumor was blocking her spinal cord fluid from flowing correctly and it was creating pressure in her head. It was also pushing on the optic nerve thus causing double vision.

The 10 hour surgery went very well and all of the tumor was removed. We are blessed that we had many family and friends wait with us while Alyssa was in surgery.

Alyssa came out of surgery with an external shunt to drain the excess fluid from her brain. She did not open her eyes for about 3 days. They did manually open them for neurological checks but her left eye was fixed to the right. She had 6^th nerve palsy. I remember thinking “Ok, I can live with a crooked eye, at least I have my baby……” A biopsy was done to determine the type. About a week later we received the results: “MEDULLOBLASTOMA”...A cancerous tumor!

After a couple of days, the doctors tried to clamp her external brain drain but it was not tolerated. She was scheduled for another surgery on 6/01/05 to put in a Ventricular Shunt for hydrocephalus and an internal Mediport for future chemotherapy use. That surgery was about 4 hours and it all went well.

While in the hospital her eyes started to get better. She could open them but still had double vision and was squinting one eye or the other to compensate. She received physical therapy to learn how to walk again & to strengthen her right side.

She was put to sleep for the third time there to have her staples removed from her head, a spinal tap & an MRI to make sure all was well with the shunt and mediport. We were delighted & thankful that the spinal tap showed no cancerous cells in the spinal cord!

She came home on 6/07/05!!!!!!

She went thru 6 wks. of radiation in the summer 05’ & started chemo. Chemo will be finished in July 06'.

August 06'

Alyssa never got her last chemo. When we went in for her last chemo, she had some symptoms that needed checking into which were unstable walking and trouble with handwriting...... The Oncologist ordered an MRI of the head and spine. The spine was clear but they saw something on the head scan that they were not sure of. We were sent down to the Cleveland Clinic for a PET scan & that was also inconclusive. The only way to be sure if this was recurrent medulloblastoma or radiation necrosis would be to do a biopsy. We were scheduled for another brain surgery/biopsy on 7/26/06. Alyssa's surgery went well. The results of the biopsy were that it was radiation necrosis and NOT recurrent medulloblastoma!!! Praise God! Her Oncologist told us that she would not need to have her last chemo & that she was finished with all treatments.

November 06’

Alyssa is currently undergoing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at the Lutheran Wound Center (part of the Cleveland Clinic) for radiation damage to her brain. She started 10/04/06 and went for 20 treatments. At that point, an MRI was performed to see if it was working. Praise be to God! For He is good! The measurement for radiation necrosis/injury was: 4.2 X 3 X 3.6 before we started HBOT and the new measurement for it is 3.1 X 1.4 X 2.1!!! That is a significant change! So, we will be continuing another 20 treatments! The treatments are every day for about 2 ½ hours. More improvement showed. Continued with 20 more treatments.

Feb. 07'

Completed 59 treatments of HBO Therapy. She had a seizure and lost her vision in the tank, the day before she completed 60 treatments. She went to Children's for a few days. EGG given, results good! She was released after regaining her vision.

Aug, 07'

MRI CLEAR (brain)

Nov. 07'

MRI CLEAR (brain and spine)

3/08/08

Start Jeanne Wallace supplement recommendations

3/13/08

MRI Clear (brain and spine - sedation)

6/26/08

MRI Clear (brain - sedation) start 6 months

© Copyright 2007 - 20011 ~ thedennewitzs.com