McKinley Paulsen
Over the last 4-6 weeks McKinley has complained about headaches. After a trip to our pediatrician on 12/11 nothing stood out, but an MRI was ordered to rule out any internal brain issues.
On 12/19 we brought McKinley to Children’s Minnetonka hospital for, what we hoped was, a routine MRI to rule out anything. As we waited in the family room for the MRI to finish, a nurse walked in ahead of the scheduled finish time and we instantly knew something was wrong by the look on her face. The nurse brought us to a private room and had us speak with with a pediatric oncologist. We were told they located a Ependymoma tumor in the 4th Ventricle of McKinley’s brain which is putting pressure on the brain stem and obstructing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Because the flow is obstructed, it’s is causing pressure in McKinley’s head, thus the headaches. Devastated doesn’t even begin to explain how we felt.
Over the last 2 days of finding out about the tumor we’ve had multiple appointments with her Neuro and Oncologist team to discuss what’s next. McKinley was prescribed a medication to slow the production of cerebrospinal fluid to hopefully ease the pressure in her head. In addition to this medication, we’ll be in and out of Children’s a couple times leading up to the “big day”. McKinley will have multiple labs and blood scans done, as well as a spinal MRI. The spinal MRI is being done to ensure her spine is healthy (no tumors) and her doctors can get a good look at her upper vertebrae.
The “big day”- Surgery to remove the tumor is currently scheduled for January 2nd. Per our surgeon it will be a long evasive surgery that is scheduled for the entire day. Two incisions will be made in her head, one on the side of her head to secure a drain and the other in the lower back of her head to remove the tumor. Fortunately, Children’s St Paul hospital has an operating room with an MRI machine located inside of it, called the IMRI Suite. This will allow the surgeon to remove the tumor, then take an MRI before closing up to verify everything has been removed. If something else is spotted while she’s open, they’ll go back in to remove it and repeat the process.
Post surgery, the tumor will be analyzed and we should get results within 7 days. Should all go as well as it could, McKinley will be in the hospital for 7-10 days following surgery. If chemotherapy is necessary, it will start a month after that. Her brain needs some time to heal from the surgery prior to beginning additional treatment.
We would like to thank everyone for the tremendous outpouring of support during this difficult time. Updates will be made on McKinley’s CaringBridge site https://caringbridge.org/visit/mckinleypaulsen
