Landen's medical fund

My 11 year old nephew Landen Schroeder will undergo his second brain surgery, November 20th at Dorenbecher  Children's Hospital at OHSU in Portland Oregon.  My goal is to raise money to help offset his medical and travel expenses. Below is the story of Landen's journey.

·         On August 22 of 2012 Landen was referred to an eye doctor specialist who scheduled an MRI, after his mom noticed his left eye had a bit of a bulge.

·         August 27th, we were notified that there was a mass there and they thought it was a tumor, and they set up an appointment with a Dr, Kevin Michel’s in Spokane who is an orbital specialist for a biopsy

·         August 30th, Landen has a biopsy in Spokane and at that time we are informed that it is a meningioma brain tumor that has managed its way behind his left eye in his orbit.

·         After further tests Dr. Michel’s has diagnosed this as Intradipolic orbital roof meningioma in a pneumosinus dilitans.

·         Landen is only the 8th recorded case of this kind and the youngest

·         After several doctor visits and referral’s, ultimately we were referred to a neurosurgeon Dr. Neil Martin at UCLA

·         After several phone consultations they have set a surgery date set for December 12, 2012.

·         At this time they believe a craniotomy is the best option to approach the removal of this tumor

·         Landen undergoes a 16 hour surgery for removal after surgery we are told they were only able to safely remove about 40% of the tumor, Landen spends about 5 days in the hospital, and then we have to stay close to UCLA for another 5 days before we can return home, for observation.

·         June of 2013 we go back to UCLA for a 1 year checkup and we are informed that his tumor is growing slowly and Dr. Martin does not feel he can do anything further for Landen and recommends radiation and sends us to Seattle for a consultation.

·         August of 2014 we travel to Seattle for a radiation consultation, at this time we are informed they don’t feel radiation is the best option at this point

·         We contact Dr, Michel who refers us to a Dr. Ng at OHSU to see what he recommends and if he agrees that he does not need radiation

·         September of 2014 we visit Dr. Ng at OHSU after reviewing all of Landen’s charts and recommendations he said he feels that the best approach to take is watch and wait. Continued appointments with Dr. Michel’s and once it gets to the point where Landen has problems or the Eye appointments reveal issues then we will address it at that time

 

2014-PRESENT

 

·         Landen goes to eye appointments every 3 months and MRI’s every 6 months

·         We have been told the tumor is growing very slowly

·         At one of Landen’s appointments in May of 2015 his vision fields test indicates some pressure problems in his eye, we are told sometimes vision fields tests can be inaccurate so Dr. Michel’s states he wants to see him back in August for another test and to get an MRI at that time as well

·         August of 2015 Landen has his MRI and vision fields tests, which indicates the tumor is continuing to grow and his second vision fields tests reveals lower pressure again

·         At this time Dr. Michel sends all of the tests to Dr. Ng and feels that it is now time to move forward with having another surgery

SEPTEMBER 2015

·         Surgery is set up for November 20th, with Dr. Ng he is bringing in 2 specialists one is a pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Baird who also has a lot of experience in endoscopy which is the approach Dr. Ng wants to take. Also having Dr. Baird on hand in case they need to get into the brain she will be there and they will be able to do so at that time.

·         The surgery will be at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at OHSU at 7:30 am November 20th, 2015.

·         We will make several trips to and from there for pre-operative and post-operative appointments

·         At this time they do not know how long Landen will have to be in the hospital or what the recovery time will be until they actually perform the surgery nor do they know if they will be able to remove all of it. The chance of permanent double vision and the possibility of blindness is approximately 40-60%

 

Landen has always remained positive throughout this difficult time in his life and at times keeps all of us strong. He knows the battle he is facing and he is ready to move on whatever the outcome may be. While at UCLA Landen found a picture frame in the hospital gift shop that said “YOU NEVER KNOW HOW STRONG YOU ARE UNTIL BEING STRONG IS THE ONLY OPTION YOU HAVE”            we bought that and its hanging in his bedroom and we all now live by that motto. We know GOD has a plan for Landen as for all of us.