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Risky surgery yields great results for teen
King George family thrilled after surgery yields results for a teenager with a brain tumor
Date published: 8/3/2009
By CATHY DYSON Teresa Roy keeps two pictures in her pocket. One shows her daughter's brain scan on May 19. There's a white blob--a tumor the doctor described as the size of a tangerine--right behind her eyes. The second scan was done on May 21, hours after 14-year-old Evelyn's surgery. In that photo, there's not a single speck of white where the tumor had been. Evelyn's mother passes the photos around to put things in perspective when someone at home or work is having a bad day. "We look at each other and say: 'The tumor's gone. How bad can it be?'" she said. After dealing with the side effects of a brain tumor for half her life, Evelyn and her family, who live in the Passapatanzy area of King George County, finally have a reason to celebrate. "We won the tumor lottery," her mother said. GAMUT OF TREATMENTS Evelyn was 7 when she was diagnosed with an optic pathway glioma. Her mother, a single parent, suspects Evelyn had it all her life, given her symptoms. "I don't remember not having one," Evelyn said. Her type of tumor was slow-growing and benign, but dangerous because of its location, said Dr. Gary Tye, a neurosurgeon at VCU Medical Center in Richmond, where Evelyn was treated. After her diagnosis in 2002, Evelyn had various procedures to reduce the tumor and the cysts that popped up on it. Doctors removed what they could of the tumor without damaging nearby nerves. It was the first of four times Evelyn's skull would be cut open for treatment. She had chemotherapy for 18 months. During all of her second-grade year and half of third grade, she was so sick from the treatments that she missed a week of school every month. She had radiation, then a procedure in which a radioactive element was placed inside the tumor to kill it, Tye said. Despite the treatments, the cysts kept filling up with fluid. That caused hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. The liquid put pressure on other tissues and produced painful headaches and vomiting--symptoms Evelyn suffered from for most of her life. Once, a cyst was so full that "brain fluid shot across the room" when the doctor popped it, Evelyn's mother said, enjoying the graphic description.
Date published: 8/3/2009
WOW!!! Prayers have been answered!!
(posted by
CamandSam
, Aug. 3, 2009 12:11 pm)
We are so happy everything worked out for you Evelyn! You and your family are always in our prayers! Love, Charlotte, Scott, Cameron & Samantha
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