Help Tylor McNeill after recent brain surgery

hi guys! Tylor recently had emergency brain surgery to relieve brain swelling caused by a mass found on his brain stem. Attached is a letter from tylor to friends and family updating you on his situation and procedure in more detail! We appreciate all the love and support we have received throughout the last couple weeks!

In the weeks leading up to Palmer’s 1st birthday party, 2/6/22, Tylor was struggling with severe headaches. These headaches were causing dizziness, vision impairment and waking him up in the night. This went on for about 10 days before we finally talked him into going to the Topeka ER hospital to get checked out. (He jokes that the women in his life have always complained of terrible migraines and he was thinking if they can handle it so could he!)

Thank God we did! Dr. Gustin at the clinic was wonderful and did a CT Scan and an MRI on Tylor’s head, where a 7mm mass was found. These scans were immediately sent to KU Med neurology team, in which they determined he needed to be transferred to their location right away. He was transported to KU Med at 9:30pm on Wednesday, 2/9/22. Once we arrived to KU Med, more scans were done and it was determined that the mass was causing a blockage in the way that Tylor’s CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) drains back out of his head and into the spine. Textbook Hydrocephalus, fluid build up in the brain’s fluid spaces (ventricles) causing swelling of the brain and lots of pressure.

The procedure was scheduled for Friday 2/11/22 and performed by Dr. Chamoun (sha-moon). Tylor was put under for a surgery called ETV (Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy). Basically they made an incision in the top of his head, drilled a “burr hole” and sent in a camera, then went into the third ventricle which lays laterally in the midbrain, and poked a hole in the bottom of this ventricle, so that the fluid could make its way out, bypassing the blocked passage between the third and fourth ventricle caused by the mass. The procedure lasted about 90 minutes, and we could tell right away that the procedure was working - Tylor was released within 24 hours of surgery! He was happy to catch the KU vs. OU basketball game that Saturday at Nina and Tony’s (his parents). Nina and Tony put us up for the next 10 days while Ty recovered and rested, they are such a blessing.

The mass is still currently in his head, located closely to his brainstem, in an inoperable area where they cannot get a biopsy or try and remove it. We are patiently waiting for our team to determine what the mass is. We are praying that it is not a tumor and doesn’t grow. Some doctor’s believe it may be what’s called an angioma (cluster of blood vessels from a previous brain bleed), that could have been in his head for some time, got loose and found its way into that space, then started to cause issues. If it is a tumor we will go through radiation treatment. If it is an angioma, it will not grow or cause many problems since the ETV procedure fixed the fluid issue, and it could possibly float to a different area and become operable for extraction. Only time will tell... we will continue following up at KU Med for scans over the months to come.

In the meantime, we are staying strong in faith. We are battle tested and the lord has prepared us and strengthened us for this through our time with Palmer in the NICU last year. We trust that God has a wonderful plan for us, and we will remain faithful and trust that plan, holding onto God while we journey through this. We ask that you pray hard for us to find peace in this situation and that the doctor’s and neurology team find the answers we need to fix this. Thank you for your prayers. The love and support from friends and family is what gives us strength and we truly feel the love from God and all of our Angels in Heaven.

Love Ty, Erika & Palmer