Funding Faith

This beautiful young lady is Faith,  my 10 year old neice. She has been diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a Cancer of the brain in children.










 Over the past several months, she has was taken ill by something unknown to doctors. There were many possibilities, but nothing prepared her family for the actual diagnosis. Her doctor ordered a cat Scan and on September 2nd, 2014 they found a large tumor on the base of her brain stem . She was then immediately life flighted to Phoenix children's hospital. An MRI was conducted and the results of her CT scan was confirmed by the surgeon. She was scheduled  for surgery the following morning. she went in for surgery at 11:00 a.m. Faith underwent a ten hour surgery while our entire family and all of her friends experienced the  most stressful and emotional day that the magority of us have ever endured.  Faith came through the surgery with no issues, she was very strong and did very well.  The morning of September 4th, Faith went for another MRI to give the surgeon a better picture of how the procedure went. After reviewing the results, the surgeon found that a large portion of the tumor still remained. Faith had to be intubated for the MRI and later that same afternoon, her right lung began to flood with fluid. The doctors had to re-intubate her to correct the problem. Faith remained intubated for the next five days. Faith suffered from infections that were caused from some of the procedures. After all of this, she had to have a drain installed in her skull due to excess fluids and pressure. Faith began her regiment of physical and speach therapies on September the 11th. Faith was very weak, but took the therapies like a soldier. Faith has not regained full use of her left hand, but she is making progress every day. She went in for her second surgery on the 17th of September, it lasted about 4 hours. they took her straight to MRI following the procedure so they wouldn't have to intubate her again the following morning. She has since resumed her therapies. The doctors were able to remove the drain in her skull on the 22nd.  Faith suffered from a mid to high grade fever for a few days, but she's doing much bettter. She has to learn to swallow again so she remains on a feeding tube.  This poor sweetheart asks for real food everyday ( pancakes and M&M's) She was finally able to be moved from the Pediatric ICU and to a different floor on the 24th. She's learning to walk again and regaining more and more strength everyday . She will start treatment in 2-3 weeks. She will have to undergo radiation and chemo therapy treatments that will last for at least six weeks.  The actual length of treatment will be determined by several tests and recomendations.