The Ewing Adventures: Early Start

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Early Start

It's early this morning and Spencer still has his vent on while he waits for the respiratory therapist to make her appearance. We had a good night's sleep and now all we are lacking is COFFEE! Oh what I wouldn't give to be able to have my espresso machine in the room!

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Spencer's Story

In November 1999, when Spencer was three years old, he began experiencing headaches, vomiting and left sided paralysis. An MRI revealed a very large brain stem tumor that stretched from the bottom of his ponds down to C4 in his spinal cord. We flew to Beth Israel hospital in New York City where Dr. Fred Epstein performed the first of two resections (tumor removal). After the first surgery, Spencer woke up and was paralyzed from the neck down; he could blink once for yes and twice for no. The doctors placed a trach so that he could be placed on a ventilator, and a feeding tube in his stomach. After six weeks at Beth Israel, Spencer was transferred to Arkansas Children's Hospital for three months of rehabilitation.

After another tumor resection in June of 2000, two years of weekly chemo treatments and seven weeks of radiation, Spencer's tumor has been "stable" for the past 12 years.

At Spencer's time of prognosis, the doctor's told us that less than 10% of children with this type of brain tumor live past the age of five, but we know that God's plan trumps anyone's speculations.