Liam's Story

Our journey started in March 2012 when Liam started vomiting randomly. Liam was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist to get checked for post nasal drip, he had a stomach ultrasound, and a GI xray. At the GI xray, the nurse also asked if Liam was diagnosed with Torticullis, due to the way he tilted his head, Liam's head tilt was something he had done for a long time. 

Nothing abnormal was discovered, and we were getting very frustrated, we were on the wait list for a GI specialist, but it was about a 2 month wait to get to see the doctor. Liam was trying medication for acid reflux, but it wasn't helping. The vomiting was starting to be more frequent, sometimes twice in a day. We finally got fed up with waiting, and on Monday April 30, we brought Liam to emergency at the Children's Hospital. The triage nurse somehow "knew" right away, she rushed Liam through to a CT scan. At about noon, the ER doctor came by and gave us the news that they saw a "lesion" in the cerebellum of Liam's brain.

Liam was admitted to Unit 3 immediately, and prepped for surgery the next day. May 1, Liam underwent surgery to remove the tumour, which took from about 7:30-2:30. They were able to do a full resection of the tumour.

After a week of waiting for the pathology, we found out it was a malignant (yes, cancer) tumor, medulloblastoma. Click here for a link to a description on the St Jude's website. Originally, they considered Liam to have average risk medulloblastoma.

A few weeks after the surgery, a lumbar puncture was done to test the cells in Liam's spinal fluid. Unfortunately, abnormal cells were found, which changed the recommended treatment from the original plan, Liam is now considered to have high risk medulloblastoma.

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