Sam's Tumor

This started out as the worst July 4th holiday a parent could have and it only got worst for us. Friday June 30 we received the results of an MRI that Sam had taken on June 16. The Neurologist showed us the x-rays. Sam has a brain tumor. On the front left side of his brain along the midline. The words from the doctor were I’ve never seen any thing quite like this. The Radiologist had called Sam’s neurologist a few days before, he also was not sure what it was. We were told that Sam should go to see a pediatric neurosurgeon. The Neurologist arranged for an appointment on Monday at 3:45. The neurologist thought that they would want to take a biopsy.

Let me give you a little background. Sam is normal young man 16 years of age that is doing fine in school at Forrest Lake Academy; he will be a junior next year. He can’t wait to drive. He is working this summer as a counselor at a summer day camp. He is loved by both the staff and the kids. In the January/February time frame he started to develop these strange body movements. At the time we just thought they were signs of boredom, tiredness, or growing. Over the next few months the frequency and severity increased to the point that we started to take notice. We stopped the ADD medicine in mid-April thinking this may have been the cause. Up until the middle of May, we thought the episodes had gone away. However while on our trip to Hong Kong (May 18 - 29) we were around Sam 24 hours a day and it became obvious that he was still having problems. We called/messaged friends at home for them to get an appointment with a neurologist as soon as possible after we returned home.

Monday July 2 at 3:15 we had our appointment with the Neurosurgeon. He basically told us that we needed to do an intervention biopsy which means that he would go in and surgically remove the tumor. We all turned white. He thought that this was not elective surgery and said that he would have done it last Friday if we had come seen him then. So we are scheduled to go to the Florida Hospital Orlando on Wednesday July 5 at 8:30 AM. They will do another MRI and then the surgery will be on either Wednesday or Thursday depending on the schedule and when we could be fit in.

There is also another spot in the rear of the brain that could be an AVM that will be dealt with at a later time.

Please keep us in your prayers.