[ad_1]
Two young siblings in southern California were diagnosed with brain cancer just two weeks apart, and are now facing a long, aggressive path of treatment to keep tumors at bay.
At the end of May -old Kalea Avery experienced a worsening headache that prompted her parents to take her to a neurologist right after the Memorial Day weekend . After performing an MRI, the doctors found a tumor – measuring 3.5 centimeters in diameter – forming near the stem of the girl's brain, reports the Daily Breeze and Kalea undergoes soon a four-hour surgery.
"We move from a healthy little girl who does skateboarding and a soccer player, who just loves life, to getting a brain tumor removed," said Kalea's father, Duncan Avery. Los Angeles Times
Doctors quickly discovered that the mass was cancerous and diagnosed Kalea with a medulloblastoma, a rapidly growing cancer that forms at the base of the skull and that can spread to the spinal cord and to other parts of the body. the body. Because medulloblastoma tumors develop in the region of the brain that controls complex motor and cognitive functions, patients typically experience movement and balance disturbances.
VIDEO: Grieving Dad shares a picture of Son, 6, comforting 4 years old – Old sister before her death
The family was able to start Kalea's treatment quickly, but their nightmare was far from perfect. to be finished. Two weeks after Kalea's diagnosis, Duncan and his wife, Nohea, noticed that Noah, aged 4, had started napping longer than usual. They first thought that their son was depressed about his sister's situation until he complained of headaches in the area between his eyebrows – the same place as his sister said a few weeks earlier. Then, the family told the Times Noah began to bend over while he was walking.
The 21 June scans revealed that Noah had a Mass at the same place as his sister, and the doctors removed the tumor four days later. While tests are in progress, they think the tumor is also a medulloblastoma.
"We burst into tears," Duncan, a 36-year-old coach at Redondo Beach Union High School, told the Times . "How do two 14-day-old children have exactly the same tumor?"
For parents, the fact that their two children had such a serious cancer at the same time was devastating.
"My heart literally had the feeling of being broken," Nohea, a nurse practitioner, told CBS Los Angeles. "He was pulled from my chest."
RELATED : A man with a terminal cancer dies just after seeing the marriage of his daughter from his hospital bed
A GoFundMe page to help the family through to more than 1,300 donors, over $ 117,000 of the $ 150,000 goal was raised in just four days.
Noah and Kalea will soon begin to undergo radiation and possibly chemotherapy. Fortunately, with aggressive treatment, most children can fight medulloblastoma long enough not to return, according to UCSF. The two siblings will also enter physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy to help their recovery.
"I do not know how I'm going to get out, but that's the case. You find a way, "Nohea told KTLA." You look at your children, you hold them and you just find a way. "
Source link
