2/15/18 UPDATE ON CAILEA:

Cailea finished up her chemo treatment in September of 2016 and returned to school in October of 2016. It wasn't without hardship though. Treatments would have her staying overnight in the hospital and not eating due to no appetite for months but we are pleased to say that this is BEHIND US! Her last MRI was in December of 2017 and it was normal! She is on a 504 plan and is slightly behind other kids in school (as to be expected since she missed a lot and is the youngest in her grade) but otherwise she is doing great! The money raised helped so much during that time and we want to thank everyone who helped us out. It's amazing to see a community of people come together to help us in our time of need. From family, friends, co workers, OSU's Float pool ULC, church family, and everyone inbetween, YOU ARE AMAZING. My mother, Laura, is taking Cailea to disney for kicking cancers *ss in May 2018 to celebrate! Thank you all again for making this time easier on our family. :)

-Caitlin 

On August 25th, 2014, just after her 8th birthday, our beloved Cailea found out she had a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball. She had been complaining about headaches for weeks and our father had taken her to the hospital and they sent her home saying nothing was wrong and sent home a book about "childhood headaches" but my mother was persistent and took her to another doctor who did an MRI and not even halfway through they saw the tumor and sent her to Children's Hospital right away and scheduled for surgery the next day.
I remember one morning I was getting her ready for school and just as it was time for the bus to come she started to complain of a headache again. She was eager to go to school since it was the beginning of the school year and for the life of me, I could not figure out why she would sporadically complain of these headaches. None of us expected the answer we eventually got from those doctors on that day.
There were many people surrounding her during this time including parents, siblings, grandparents, pastors and friends of the family. She even became well known to the hospital staff. She was just happy that they finally figured out what was wrong and that she would no longer have headaches anymore. The surgery lasted 10 hours as we patiently waited for her to get done. The risks included were loss of memory, motor impairment including the ability to walk or talk but it was not just limited to those things. If they had not found this tumor when they did she could have suffered a stroke from the pressure on her brain or even death.


Cailea came out of the surgery doing as well as she could. She spent 5 days in the hospital after the surgery to recover and was only wobbly on her feet for a couple months as a result from the surgery. But this wasn't the end of it as it was a cancerous tumor. She had to undergo radiation and chemo. Radiation was 5 days a week 40 miles there and back every morning for 6 weeks. Chemo was once a week, same distance. She lost all of her hair and lost weight from these treatments and it was hard to keep her from illnesses as her immune system was so damaged from the chemo. Sometimes the chemo made her so sick that she had to stay a couple days in the hospital after it was finished.


The incision
Cailea was just a normal little girl before all of this. So cute with such beautiful red hair. She lost of all her hair and missed out on so much school. She had to have a private tudor just to keep up with her class so she wouldn't be held back. Kids her age don't understand exactly what is going on with her and it made it hard for her to fit in like she use to. 

Cailea before all this happen 
Amazingly she prevailed. She rang the bell at the hospital in celebration of her last chemo treatment last summer in July 2015. The Make-A-Wish foundation even granted her a wish and they sent our family to Disney World for Caileas wish. We all thought that after the long hard process that Cailea had been through, this was the final celebration of the end of it to be at Disney. It was like kissing it goodbye in such a sweet way.

Cailea celebrating what she thought was the end

This past weekend Cailea had a follow up MRI to check for another tumor. Unfortunately it has come back just two months after the trip that was meant for celebration of her success beating it. It is a fast growing tumor currently the size of grape. She will be undergoing surgery again to have it removed from her brain and will need not just another round but an aggressive chemo treatment. They also are going to be placing stem cells in her brain this time. Using stem cells is still being tested and Cailea will be part of the case study for it. We are hoping this way will beat the cancer for good! This is a very devastating time for Cailea and our family and any help we can get for this will go such a long way.



We are asking for help for all the travel expenses going to and from Columbus 5 or more times a week, for the time that is needed that my mom will need to take off work for this, any left over medical expenses during this time, gifts or food for Cailea while she is hospitalized, and any left over amount will be used solely for Cailea's happiness and if there is enough, a vacation celebration of her choice.

We learned the first time that this very difficult to go through alone and on top of the stress of worrying for Cailea alone, all other expenses that will add stress we are trying very heavily to avoid so we can focus all of our attention on Cailea during this time. Thank you for taking the time to read Cailea's story. All proceeds go to Cailea's mother Laura. No donation is to small, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. 
.