Cameron's Cancer Fight Fund
Donation protected
We are maintaining a website (see the link at the bottom of this post) for people to follow and to get updates and details but here’s the short version of Cam’s story and why we hope you can help us.
Cameron was a normal, happy, active ten month old until he stopped using his right arm nearly overnight. At first, we and his pediatrician thought he had injured his elbow but over the next few days, he became more sleepy and more cranky until he was obviously no longer himself. He literally did not smile or laugh for a week! We took him to the emergency room at Children's Hospital Colorado on January 30, 2016, where they did a CT scan and an MRI and found a very large mass in the left side of his brain. The mass had obstructed flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the ventricles, causing most of his acute abnormal behaviors. On February 2nd, the AMAZING doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado got a biopsy of the mass and placed a VP shunt to relieve the pressure on his ventricles.
The biopsy results came back that Cam has an atypical (type 2) meningioma which is common in adults but very, very rare in babies. Normally, these types of tumors are treated with surgical excision and radiation, but Cam’s tumor is in the middle of his brain and closely associated with some very important blood vessels. Also, radiation in babies is dangerous due to risk of future developmental problems. To further complicate matters, recheck MRI showed that his tumor had grown quickly in two weeks.
On February 17, 2016, Cam underwent a fifteen hour surgery to remove the mass from his brain. The surgery was very difficult and tedious, Cam required a blood transfusion and he also suffered a stroke. In the end, nearly ⅔ of the mass is still remaining and he has almost no function in his right arm and leg. It was a risky surgery that he didn’t handle very well, so our neuro team has decided to try some other chemotherapies before going back to surgery. However, since his tumor is rare and refractory to treatment, we have no way to estimate how he will respond or for how long. The point is, we may have a very, very long road ahead of us.
Though our priority is to be with Cameron in the hospital and support him in his recovery, that’s not the whole story. Cam has an older brother and sister, two of the most kind, funny, amazing kids you’d ever want to meet and they are so scared for their baby. Kris and I have been taking turns staying in the hospital with Cam and the big kids are not allowed to visit his room, so our family has been very divided. We are trying our best to keep their lives as normal as possible, getting them to school, sports and play practice, and they are handling it like champions.
Throughout this nightmare, Kris and I have really realized how lucky we are. We both have stable, flexible jobs with amazing bosses, health insurance and a network of family and friends that are so supportive and hopeful. The biggest break of all was that we live in the same town as the world’s BEST children’s hospital! But now, as we stare down the future, we don’t know what will happen to Cameron and our family. Will there be another brain surgery next month? The month after that? Next year? How many chemotherapies will they try before one works? How much physical therapy are we looking at? We have no idea how much work we will need to miss or how the medical bills will pile up over the next months to years. We do know we are going to fight this cancer with everything we have, so maybe it’s time to ask for help.
Just so you know, Kris and I were both very, very reluctant to ask for money. We wanted to handle this ourselves, probably sell the house and cut corners, continue trading work hours, but that is starting to look unrealistic. After a lot of back and forth, we decided to ask for help for Cameron’s big brother and sister and our family as a whole. Although we have wonderful bosses, our paid time off will run out very soon, and we still have bills and a mortgage to pay and a family to support. Our insurance will cover a very large portion of the extremely HUGE bill we are incurring (the best pediatric neuro oncology, surgery and rehabilitation team in the world ain’t cheap, but MAN are we lucky to have them!!!) but there will be copays, deductibles and other costs related to medical expenses and that will add up fast. These are the things that Kris and I don’t really care about now, while we are still in the middle of a crisis, but we know will come back and hit us hard if we don’t start preparing now.
Cam has always been a smiley, agreeable baby, big for his age, a good night time sleeper and so much fun. He loved to play peekaboo, pull the dog's hair and listen to his brother and sister sing and make silly noises. He would never turn down a nice bowl of applesauce or cheddar cheese cubes. We want him back and we think we can get him back, but only if we can keep the rest of the family strong. We have had an outpouring of support, in the form of prayers and emails, teddy bears and casseroles and that’s really gotten us through the last month. Thanks to everybody reading this and thanks in advance to anyone who’d like to help us, even if it is a positive thought for Cam’s recovery (because that’s really what we need most of all!). We love you! Thanks!
www.caringbridge.org/visit/cameronbarrow
Cameron was a normal, happy, active ten month old until he stopped using his right arm nearly overnight. At first, we and his pediatrician thought he had injured his elbow but over the next few days, he became more sleepy and more cranky until he was obviously no longer himself. He literally did not smile or laugh for a week! We took him to the emergency room at Children's Hospital Colorado on January 30, 2016, where they did a CT scan and an MRI and found a very large mass in the left side of his brain. The mass had obstructed flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the ventricles, causing most of his acute abnormal behaviors. On February 2nd, the AMAZING doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado got a biopsy of the mass and placed a VP shunt to relieve the pressure on his ventricles.
The biopsy results came back that Cam has an atypical (type 2) meningioma which is common in adults but very, very rare in babies. Normally, these types of tumors are treated with surgical excision and radiation, but Cam’s tumor is in the middle of his brain and closely associated with some very important blood vessels. Also, radiation in babies is dangerous due to risk of future developmental problems. To further complicate matters, recheck MRI showed that his tumor had grown quickly in two weeks.
On February 17, 2016, Cam underwent a fifteen hour surgery to remove the mass from his brain. The surgery was very difficult and tedious, Cam required a blood transfusion and he also suffered a stroke. In the end, nearly ⅔ of the mass is still remaining and he has almost no function in his right arm and leg. It was a risky surgery that he didn’t handle very well, so our neuro team has decided to try some other chemotherapies before going back to surgery. However, since his tumor is rare and refractory to treatment, we have no way to estimate how he will respond or for how long. The point is, we may have a very, very long road ahead of us.
Though our priority is to be with Cameron in the hospital and support him in his recovery, that’s not the whole story. Cam has an older brother and sister, two of the most kind, funny, amazing kids you’d ever want to meet and they are so scared for their baby. Kris and I have been taking turns staying in the hospital with Cam and the big kids are not allowed to visit his room, so our family has been very divided. We are trying our best to keep their lives as normal as possible, getting them to school, sports and play practice, and they are handling it like champions.
Throughout this nightmare, Kris and I have really realized how lucky we are. We both have stable, flexible jobs with amazing bosses, health insurance and a network of family and friends that are so supportive and hopeful. The biggest break of all was that we live in the same town as the world’s BEST children’s hospital! But now, as we stare down the future, we don’t know what will happen to Cameron and our family. Will there be another brain surgery next month? The month after that? Next year? How many chemotherapies will they try before one works? How much physical therapy are we looking at? We have no idea how much work we will need to miss or how the medical bills will pile up over the next months to years. We do know we are going to fight this cancer with everything we have, so maybe it’s time to ask for help.
Just so you know, Kris and I were both very, very reluctant to ask for money. We wanted to handle this ourselves, probably sell the house and cut corners, continue trading work hours, but that is starting to look unrealistic. After a lot of back and forth, we decided to ask for help for Cameron’s big brother and sister and our family as a whole. Although we have wonderful bosses, our paid time off will run out very soon, and we still have bills and a mortgage to pay and a family to support. Our insurance will cover a very large portion of the extremely HUGE bill we are incurring (the best pediatric neuro oncology, surgery and rehabilitation team in the world ain’t cheap, but MAN are we lucky to have them!!!) but there will be copays, deductibles and other costs related to medical expenses and that will add up fast. These are the things that Kris and I don’t really care about now, while we are still in the middle of a crisis, but we know will come back and hit us hard if we don’t start preparing now.
Cam has always been a smiley, agreeable baby, big for his age, a good night time sleeper and so much fun. He loved to play peekaboo, pull the dog's hair and listen to his brother and sister sing and make silly noises. He would never turn down a nice bowl of applesauce or cheddar cheese cubes. We want him back and we think we can get him back, but only if we can keep the rest of the family strong. We have had an outpouring of support, in the form of prayers and emails, teddy bears and casseroles and that’s really gotten us through the last month. Thanks to everybody reading this and thanks in advance to anyone who’d like to help us, even if it is a positive thought for Cam’s recovery (because that’s really what we need most of all!). We love you! Thanks!
www.caringbridge.org/visit/cameronbarrow
Organizer
Lauren Harper Barrow
Organizer
Colorado, CO
