Dani's Journey
Dani's Journey:
On Friday March 10th, 2017 Alex took Dani to her pediatrician's office as she had not been feeling well on and off for the past few weeks. She was vomiting (mostly first thing in the morning) and had no other symptoms like a fever etc that you would normally associate with being sick or having a virus. This visit happened to be the 4th time that she had been seen by some type of pediatric healthcare worker over the course of those 11 days. They did notice that her ear was a little red and gave her some antibiotics, but the pediatrician told Alex that if she did not get any better by that evening she needed to take her to the hospital and demand further testing. As the evening approached she was not feeling any better so it was decided to go ahead and take her in. In the ER at Nemours after completing an exam, blood work and a CT of the head we received the devastating news that Dani had a mass on her brain and that she would need to be admitted for further testing. On Saturday March 11th, 2017 a MRI of the brain and spine was completed, the neurologist did confirm our worst fear that she did have a mass aka brain tumor in the 4th compartment of her brain that was the size of a golf ball plus other small spots in the brain and spine. The plan of care at this point was to undergo brain surgery as soon as possible to remove the tumor and do a spinal tap so testing could be performed to see what type of tumor we were dealing with. Our family was absolutely crushed!!!! You look at this little light of life who just is smiling back up at you and wonder how could this possibly be happening. How could someone who at this point only experiences love and kindness be chosen to carry such a heavy burden. The neurologist stated that the vomiting in the morning was caused by the pressure in her brain and told us how amazing it was that we were able to get this diagnosed only in a few weeks as sometimes these types of things can take 3-4 months to diagnose. On Monday March 13, 2017 Dani underwent brain surgery, it was a long day full of anxiety for everyone waiting. They took her down at 7:30am and brought her back around 4pm. The neurologist said they were able to remove most of the big tumor. It ended up being more vascular than he anticipated so she did loose about 8 pints of blood and was given a blood transfusion of about 10 pints. They were not able to access any of the smaller tumors for further testing. The tumor has been sent off for testing as well as the spinal fluid from the spinal tap. Hopefully we should know something in the next couple days. On Tuesday March 14, 2017 Dani underwent another MRI to assure the removal of the large tumor. We are still currently waiting for those results.
This was just the first step in a long process. We still aren't sure what types of tumors she has and what kind of therapy she will need. She will have to recover from surgery (2-3 weeks) before any therapy cam start. More than likely chemotherapy or radiation or both. Still a lot of uncertain things. One thing not uncertain is our little girl is a fighter!!
She had a really rough time after the surgery. The anesthesia got the best of her. She became agitated and a little aggressive. Her IV came out of her hand, she took a bite out of Scott's hand and tried to bite her Mimi's fingertip off, and started vomiting. It took about 5 people to hold her down and get some Morphine in her to calm her down. She did have some swelling in her face because of the position she was in during surgery as well as some red marks from the table. Right now it's just a lot of rest and pain management.
We will continue to update everyone as the updates become available!!! We ask everyone to continue to pray for our Dani as she was definitely made for something big in this world! We are creating this Go Fund Me page to help Alex and Scott as the expenses will be immense during this long journey of recovery and so they can concentrate and devote their time to there beloved daughter. Anything that anyone can give is greatly appreciated!
