Ependymoma
stories don’t always end up with happy endings, but here is a story I read
while back in Michigan for the Thanksgiving holiday.
According
to Zlati Meyer, the Detroit Free Press staff
writer, “The nightmare began after a week of nonstop vomiting misdiagnosed by
their pediatrician.” Only after they took their young child to Helen DeVos
Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids did a doctor suspect something was wrong
after feeling that the soft spot on Abby's head was puffy. It was the day Abby
turned 10 months old.”
Meyer
goes on to report that “A CAT scan revealed a brain tumor wrapped around her
brain stem -- an ependymoma that physicians theorized formed in utero and is
very rare in a child so young. The Greers were told to give their daughter a
kiss, because she'd be put into a medically induced coma for several days
before what would be a 12 1/2-hour surgery to remove the tumor.”
Yes,
you read that right, twelve and a half hours. My surgery was, gee, about half
that long and I thought that was forever.
Her dad, Brandon
Greer remembered when, shortly thereafter in the intensive care unit, he knew
things would be OK. "I kissed her toes ... and she giggled. It was her first
reaction. She had a little smile on her face. I never cried so hard in my life.
I knew my baby was coming back to me."
Now
it that doesn’t hit you in your soft spot, you don’t have one.
For more about Abby’s fight, her treatments and a great video, try this link: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311230091
