Embrys treatment
Hi, my name is ebony and I’m the mother to Embry Davis. Murray (Embrys father) and I are raising money to help go towards expenses regarding Embrys treatment including accomodation, parking, extra expenses etc. His treatment which requires us to be in the city for 6 weeks while he receives radiation therapy under g/a for 30 on going days at the Peter McCallum centre in Melbourne is costing us a load at such short notice starting this Wednesday coming, and due to the care and needs of Embry through out his journey we have been out of work for majority of his treatment, although we’ve had good support on the way unfortunately there is still some up front out of pocket costs towards his treatment. Anything will help and we appreciate any generous donations.
We’ve held off making a go fund me or even telling his story because we didn’t know how far embry would come and now we have his plan and on the road to recovery for now, we’re reaching out to everyone for a helping hand.
here is a little back story about Embry to give you an understanding and awareness of his case.
Embry was born last year in March during the first lockdown, he was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer/tumour called Anaplastic Ependymoma at just 5 months old. He never showed any signs until I noticed he had developed a tilt in his head and neck that seemed to only get worse followed by eating and drinking less and being very unsettled. Now during lockdown it was very hard to get a GP or any medical professional to have a physical look at Embry and was mostly telehealth appointments until he had a follow up appointment regarding a different medical condition at our local hospital which I had to urge for them to physically see him. Upon arrival they admitted us to the paediatric ward straight away.
we had all kinds of specialists come to look at Embry trying to figure out a reason to why he was experiencing these things. It wasn’t until the second day in they decided to do an mri -they told me not to worry about anything “that it’s probably just an abscess in his neck”. And that’s when the news we received changed his and our lives. They had found a tumour at the posterior fossa.
He was then transported to the Royal children’s hospital. Now because of restrictions it was only 1 parent at a time at the hospital and we couldn’t have all his family come stay with us while he was in hospital so it made things a lot more difficult. they started him on steroids straight away to reduce the pressure he had on his brain so they could perform a biopsy on him to find out what kind of tumour they were dealing with, he started to slowly deteriorate, and every day it got worse and harder to watch, he went paralysed on the left side of his body due to the pressure of the tumour pressing on his basic nerves, after his biopsy he was sent to icu for monitoring at this point he was in critical condition, over night he stopped breathing on his own and relied on a breathing tube which resorted to him needing urgent surgery to debunk the size of the tumour to create less pressure. the risks that were involved with his surgery were very high due to him being in such critical condition.
-we were told later down the track that doctors weren’t even sure at the time of surgery that Embry would survive-
After a long 8hr+ surgery we received a call to say he went really well and he was sent to icu in a induced coma for 2 weeks, they showed us images and we were in tears that they had got more of the tumour then they had anticipated. When he woke up they weren’t sure whether he would be able to move his body or how much normality he would have back but Embry being the strong little boy he is woke up with all his feeling and movement in his limbs again. But this was just the beginning.
after they new exactly what kind of tumour theywere dealing with (anaplastic ependymoma) which is a grade 3 tumour meaning it is a very fast and aggressive tumour in fact they told us they think he was born with it. The oncology team made an intense chemotherapy treatment plan for him that required chemo every 21 days and started pretty much as soon as he was stable enough to. After 3-4 months in hospital and after we learnt to care for him away from hospital he was finally able to come home and from there he was an outpatient for a short while having weekly check ups many blood infusions many other required appointments with different teams you name it. due to difficulties that come with chemotherapy we were in and out of hospital, he ended up having a serious bug in his blood which lead to not being safe to continue. after 2 months they’ve decided to stop his chemotherapy and move on to radiation therapy to stop the growth even more. He is still very young being 13 months old now but being his case radiation is necessary.
In saying that due to the location of his tumour they are unable to remove the whole tumour with out it being very unsafe and risky. There just isn’t enough study or evidence to indicate what caused Embry to get this kind of tumour , especially in his age it’s rarely seen the only thing they could give me was “it’s just one of those things of pure bad luck” He will have difficulties learning as he gets older and there is a very high chance that this tumour will start growing again. statistics show that his survival and to be cured is 30-40% with out full resection of the tumour. This tumour can grow again at any moment. Radiation is not reliable. But it definitely helps and I couldn’t thank his teams and everyone especially mine and Murray’s family and friends enough for everything they have done to support him and us.
After many surgeries, many procedures, blood infusions, check ups and loads of visits to the hospital we are finally on the home stretch to him being able to make the most of his childhood and to move on with his development, by doing this radiation and your help with donations will help with that in many ways possible.
thank you.
