Kill Sara's cancer! Funds needed!
On November 5th 2004, a beautiful little girl was placed into our arms at two minutes old, and with that Sara's journey through life with us began. Two days after birth, Sara starts having seizures and was diagnosed with Epilepsy at 10 days old. Sara takes many medicine for her seizures, but no matter what combination of medications we have given her throughout her lifetime, the seizures remain uncontrollable. Sara is almost ten years old now.
We have the best team of doctors at Children's Hospital in Denver CO on her case, and thank them daily for what they do for our daughter. After every test in the book and years of hospital stays, there is still no reason for Sara's seizures. We have grown accustomed to managing the seizures when they happen, and have somehow found a way to live a relatively normal life around her disease.
We have routine MRI's for Sara to check and make sure that nothing new has formed. Our last routine MRI in May turned into our worst nightmare. The image showed a large tumor behind her left eye, attached to her optic nerve. This tumor was completely incidental, not associated with her Epilepsy at all. We talked to a long list of specialists at Children's Hospital, and decided the best thing to do would be to wait a few months, and do another MRI to develop a timeline, and to decide on the best course of action. We just had the 2nd MRI, and the tumor is growing.
A biopsy showed that the tumor is an Optic Glioma, technical name is Pilocytic Astrocytoma. We will be starting chemotherapy October 13th, 2014 on our 9 year old daughter, to try and destroy the tumor. The Chemo treatments will be once a week for 3 straight weeks, then we take a week off. We have to do this for an entire year and hope it does the job. There will be an MRI every 3 months during treatment to chart the (hopefully) shrinking tumor, then many more for years to come to make sure it is not returning.
Sara has been in and out of hospitals her whole life, and right or wrong, this is something she has grown accustomed to. This might be our saving grace, as she is the toughest little girl I know, much tougher than her Mommy and Daddy.
I have insurance through the company I work for, but as we all know, this insurance can never cover all the costs associated with this type of treatment, not to mention the time off of work for both me and my wife to take Sara to these treatments, and the travel time of several hours each way to and from the hospital.
I will do anything to make sure my daughter is free of pain, and that I will be able to keep her happy and get her healthy again. This is why I am pleading for your help. My wife and I can't do this on our own, and we are in need of every bit of help we can find, and all the prayers that we can get for Sara that are possible.
Thank you for your consideration, and may God Bless you.