Team Gianna ... #ByeEddie

Since being diagnosed on May 30, 2016 Gianna has been through brain surgeries a shunt placement experimental radiation treatment that has a 50% chance of working . She has then she spent all of summer 2016 in and out of the hospital and on top of that getting radiation treatment EVERYDAY 5 days a week. Now after 33 rounds of radiation losing hair and lots of medicine Gianna is dealing with the physical aftermath of it all the nausea, uncontrollable gagging, vomiting, aches, pains, muscle spasms, dizziness, weakness, double vision, physical therapy, occupational therapy, starting this summer speech therapy, and much more. Although her tumor has shrunk a 22% in the past year and we are very grateful to all the doctors that she sees but now we're left with the backlash of all these payments every surgical additive anesthesiologist and more we are left with all these bills. Now with my husband back to work him being the only income we now have no food stamps due to his income. This is seriously frustrating and unfair that my daughter's life is on the line with every signature we make with the uncertainty there anything will work because there's nothing to base it on. We go out on a whim every single time it works or it doesn't and we're stuck with all the bills that should've been covered because it was all experimental. WE NEED HELP! CANCER CANNOT HAVE OUR DAUGHTER! HER LIFE IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THOSE WITH ADULT CANCERS #MoreThan4%
Below is Gianna's story please read what the last year has been like thank you all and god bless always keep us in prayer and help us spread awareness childhood cancer is real!
Funny, intelligent, sassy, out spoken, before her time, sweet, talented, creative, humble.... I can keep going, these are just some words to describe my 1st born Gianna or best known as Gigi "diva". Gianna is now 8 years old and has only seen a doctor for her yearly physical for school. But things literally changed over night for her. It started the weekend before memorial weekend she complained of a slight headache that went away before the hour was over. Tuesday comes by and she woke up with a headache so I gave her some Tylenol before school and she was fine until the next day when she had the headache during school so I picked her up early. Friday the same thing Saturday we take her to the beach and she had a blast but on Sunday evening was her worst. She cried and said "mommy I can't" ! Her symptoms were sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, vomiting, and some neck stiffness. I thought that like me she was having a migraine so I take her to the ER and they treated the headache. Because of her age a CT was ordered and the results will forever change our lives. They found 3 little bright specks on the back of her brain (MALIGNANT NEOPLASM OF THE BRAIN). The Dr. comes to me and says "mom I'm so sorry we found a tumor " my heart drops to the floor. We immediately get transfered to Goryeb Children's Hospital in Morristown, NJ where the BEST team of surgeons I could have ever asked for create a plan. 1st step MRI, results were that the tumor was a plum sized ball that is attached to the right side of her brain and using blood vessels to grow. Gianna tells the Dr. as he tries to explain to me "excuse me I watch Grey's Anatomy I know what a tumor is and they usually name them ... We need to name this one". His name is Eddie the tumor and he is 85yrs old and yellow ( after surgery we were informed that he was actually purple) was what she said. She had brain surgery on Thursday the 2nd and has had a not so smooth recovery. 2 steps forward and 1 back. She has been in bed for almost 3 weeks on Monday the 13th and has just started physical therapy in which she is learning how to walk all over and now is using a walker. The part of the brain where Eddie called home is the balance portion of the brain so now she has no balance to sit and stand. Even though MOST OF EDDIE was removed there is still some left wrapped around the stem of her brain. Its been the hardest thing for my husband and I to see her like this and her little sister says " mommy when Gigi going home and why she has the boo boo on her head and they cut her hair" all I can tell her is Gianna has to be here for now. Gigi is on a crazy amount of steroids to keep the swelling down so get brain can heal she is eating but can't hold anything down so she is on around the clock nausea medication and has had as much as 4 IV ports at a time. She had a lumber puncture which is where they drain some spinal fluid to get it tested and make sure that Eddie wasn't trying to travel around her body grow somewhere else.  This is so hard to watch but I try to do my best to be strong for her and show her that she is going to get through this because Eddie isn't going to beat her and she will say #byeEddie. She still has a long road ahead and the biopsy results as of now are still not ready they are coming from 2 different places one being the St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Delaware. This is so difficult to watch her go through. W
hen all I want to do is hear her sing her favorite "Try Everything" by Shakira from Zootopia which we all sing when she needs a blood draw our new IV or when she is rolled into to MRI or Surgery. This has brought even the surgical nurse to tears. Now we have out patient physical therapy, oncologist and neurologist appointments coming up when she finally gets discharged from this hospital. Its going to be hard but had to be done. I hurry more than I can ever explain for my daughter but I keep it together because I know she is hurting more and needs her parents to be her rock. We are hoping to build a railing through the entire house for her to be able to have the option to walk with or without her now  necessary walker, she needs things like a new mattress with a pillow top and a cooling gel pillow to give her comfort while her head heals. These donations will contribute to her medication co-pays  and appointments with her many specialists transportation that the insurance doesn't cover, her physical therapy and much more. Even though she has insurance they don't cover much as far as majors go. But the list goes on. Thank you all for your time and reading this as well as sending all your prayers our way God Bless You All ..  *** here is an update on her diagnosis she has a rare form of childhood cancer called Ependymoma and she will be taking part in clinical trail that is in it's 3rd phase she said "im going be going through all of this i might as well be doing for other kids in the future too because this sucks" radiation starts on the 15th of July and it's going to be the longest 12 weeks of her life but ahe won't be doing it alone. #teamGianna all the way.