Help a dinosaur get his roar back (Zoultan) .

As some of you know & some of you don’t know our son has been in Vanderbilt hospital since Saturday night due to a tumor that was on his brain .. He had craniotomy surgery to remove the tumor Monday morning & we do not know whether or not the tumor is cancerous & we won’t know for another week or two because they sent off part of it to have it tested .. & this all depended on how the surgery went .. his tumor was attached to nerves 4 through 12 .. So 8 of his vital nerves were comprised during this surgery , & they are the most important nerves that control his motor skills & movements .. The tumor was as well pressed against his brain stem & his spinal cord .. There is a possibility that he will be deaf in his left ear & his left eye may lose partial to full vision .. He also had major fluid on his brain from how big the tumor is & where it’s located ..

It all began about 3 months ago when Zoultan started complaining of headaches & just wasn’t the same little spunky dinosaur we all have grown to love & know .. When it started it was high fevers , headaches & sleepless nights .. we took him to his pediatrician & the hospital they had done a cat scan & said it came back clear so they prescribed him amoxicillin for the fever & slight cold symptoms he had .. we went home from there .. he stopped complaining of headaches for awhile & seemed to go back to normal .. Well about 2 weeks ago we noticed him tilting his head to right , he was starting to complain about headaches again & his balance was completely off , his eyes seemed off and almost lazy & then one night I noticed that the left side of face seemed droopy & almost sagging .. but I tried not to think negatively about it .. I once again took him to the pediatrician & she evaluated him & said that maybe it was a vision issue so she sent us on our way with an eye appointment & that was that ..

Well Friday morning he woke up & the first thing he said to me was “Mommy , my head hurts” & then he started to almost aspirate as if he was choking on vomit so we flipped him over on his tummy & patted his back & he vomited.. & then he seemed fine the rest of Friday .. Well then Saturday morning when we woke up I was getting ready for work & he asked for some donuts & milk , so I left to go to the store to fulfill my baby’s request .. When I had gotten back my boyfriend was in distress because Zoultan had once vomited again but this time it was worse .. He said to me that we needed to take him to the hospital so I dropped everything I was doing & called my boss to let her know I wouldn’t be in to work & we rushed him to Saint Thomas Rutherford hospital in Murfreesboro & that’s when the nightmare began again .. The doctors were concerned of the signs he was showing , so they decided to sedate him & do an MRI on his brain to look for anything abnormal , they came back almost 4 hours later (because it took longer than expected ..) with the news that our beautiful , smart , & completely innocent son had a very large mass on the back of his brain that they were concerned about .. From there we waited as they called Vanderbilt Children’s hospital to see if they wanted to do further testing .. Vanderbilt said they did & so they transported him by ambulance to Vanderbilt Saturday night .. We have been here ever since .. I just want to take the time to say whatever you or anyone chooses to donate will be strictly used for Zoultans medical purposes as well as to help us financially because due to this happening I’m on the verge of losing my job & my boyfriend isn’t currently working but he is supposed to start his training program for his new job this month on March 14th but we cannot say right now if our son will be stable at that point .. We cannot leave our beautiful son to work , it’s just not physically , mentally or emotionally possible for us to continue to work while our child lays in a hospital bed helpless .. We are extremely grateful for whatever can be done .. We don’t expect anything out of this other than for our son to come home with us eventually . We promise that this has been the most traumatic experience we’ve ever experienced & we are so very scared for our baby .. He is being held my Jesus Christ right now & as well as everyone’s support & prayers … All we can do it ride this out for him because although we are afraid & worried , We can only imagine how he feels as for he is the one actually enduring it .

Continued prayers are also welcome !!

-Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts ..

Sincerely , Lani , Dale & Zoultan ..

UPDATE:

Everyone has been asking about updates .. Sorry it’s been a rough 2 days since he’s been out of Surgery ..

His surgery was extremely long but it went WONDERFUL .. his surgery was 12 or so hours long .. he came out of surgery Monday night around 10 p.m & we got to see him shortly after . His surgeon told us Monday night when he was done with Zoultans surgery that he was 99.9% sure that all of the tumor was removed & none of nerves 4 through 12 endured any damage but that we wouldn’t be too for sure until his post opp MRI on Tuesday morning .. but that night we knew God was on our side because Zoultan spoke to us & was able to remember who we were after the breathing tube was removed .. He also tried to roll completely over in the bed that night , even after having been in a serious brain surgery for 12 hours or more that day/night .

So fast forward to Tuesday morning for the MRI results .. he called us to tell us that the MRI WAS CLEAR !! There were no traces of tumor left & all his nerves were NOT damaged .. Zoultan began talking & moving more & more yesterday !! He has been smiling & responsive to both his daddy & I & his doctors/nurses as well .. We don’t know about the physical therapy aspect as of right now .. we are just taking it one day at a time with him because he has a long road to recovery & is in a extreme amount of pain !!

TODAYS main focus is to get him to eat , he has been slowly drinking & keeping it down .. we did try a bite of applesauce & he handled it well but wasn’t tolerating it because it’s cold we think , so we are allowing it to warm up a bit & try again in a little while ..

Now as to everyone who has been here with us THANK YOU SO MUCH , to everyone who hasn’t been able to make it but who has reached out THANK YOU !! & to everyone who hasn’t stopped praying for us THANK YOU , & most importantly THANK THE LORD ABOVE for holding our son through all of this .. We have been as strong as we can , it’s still rough but we are doing it & we are doing it FOR HIM … If anyone has further question feel free to contact me or his daddy .

UPDATE #2:

The tumor is called a Ependymoma .. it’s cancerous , we don’t know if it’s the aggressive or less aggressive kind of cancer .. we only know the gist of it .. we will know the more detailed part of it in a few days or another week … He will endure radiation & chemo therapy …