Love For Jolynn

January 14, 2015 was just an ordinary day, we were all in the living room watching movies & laughing & playing with Jolynn. The next morning on January 15, 2015 she couldn't get up for school. We knew she was coming down with something; she was throwing up & too weak to even sit herself up. She was dizzy to walk or stand, so we had to carry Jolynn. Her eyes were going crooked and we immediately took her to the E.R. The doctor didn't bother to evaluate Jolynn, he didn't check her lungs, her eyes, nothing. He stated, "she's acting like a normal sick child". He even asked why we took her to the ER and told us we should of just taken her to her pediatrician because the ER services are expensive. He just kept lecturing us & dismissed ALL of her symptoms and diagnosed her with an 'Upper Respiratory Virus'. We took her back home thinking she just needed rest since she was just sleeping all day. We let her rest about an hour & a half and she never wanted to wake up, not even to eat, drink, or go to the restroom & she kept having accidents & didn't seem to be aware she was having them either. Then she looked as if she was getting worse & looked like she was getting seizures so my husband & I immediately took her to a different E.R. They immediately saw something was horribly wrong and ordered a CT Scan for her. 15 minutes later the doctor came into the room with a sad look on his face and couldn't even look us in our eyes & said; "she has a tumor in her brain that is blocking all the fluid from going down her spinal cord and it's building up in her brain which is causing her to have convulsions and it's also preventing her from having any control of her body"
As soon as I heard the word "tumor". I just lost, it felt like a cold, hard grasp around my heart, it felt too surreal. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare. My husband & I kept holding our daughter, crying, praying; and wondering if that was the last time we'd have her in our arms.
A nurse came in with tears & asked if she could say a prayer for Jolynn and hugged her the whole time. Another doctor came in and said they needed to transport her by helicopter NOW to Corpus Christi, Texas. They only allowed 1 parent during transport so My husband went with our daughter in the helicopter & I had to drive 3 hours to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus. As soon as I got to the waiting room to look for my husband; he slammed the door open, hugged me tight and cried uncontrollably (my immediate thought was that Jolynn died) when he was able to catch his breath and talk he said Jolynn stopped breathing & the nurses rushed in & told him he needed to leave IMMEDIATELY so they can put her on life support. At that moment we didn't know if she was going to make it, we didn't know what was going on or anything. Time dragged and after what seemed like forever, we were FINALLY told that Jolynn was stable& we could go in to see Jolynn. The Chaplain warned us she would look very different from when we first brought her. We walked in and couldn't recognize our little Lynn-Lynn; we cried & cried while watching machines breathing for her and a pipe (shunt) screwed in her head that was used to drain out the fluid retaining in her brain. Our baby didn't look like herself at all. She couldn't hear us, or see us.. She couldn't talk and say she loved us.. My heart couldn't bear that pain, all I wanted at that moment was to trade places with her! No parent should have to see their child suffer like that! It was extremely heartbreaking & very scary not knowing if she would make it through the next few hours. All this happened in less than 24 hours! W had so many questions, How? Why? What if? Never did I think this would happen to my baby!
Dr. Burke came in & told us he would need to do surgery in the morning to take out the tumor.
She was in surgery for 6 hours. Dr. Burke said surgery went well, hardly any blood loss, and he was under the microscope to make sure he didn't miss any small pieces of the tumor.
After Jolynn came out of surgery to recover she had bandages around her head and had diapers on, we didn't understand why she had diapers at the time, I initially thought it was just for surgery only, and unfortunately I was wrong.. A few more hours after surgery and Jolynn was finally off life support! (SOME good news)
Then Tests were ran & unfortunately it came out the tumor was Malignant (Cancerous). Another heartbreaking moment in a very short amount of time. Medulloblastoma was her diagnoses. A common fast growing cancer that usually occurs in young children. They told us her treatments had to start immediately with Radiation and Chemo therapy for the next year and a half. My husband had to take medical leave from his career as a Welder and I had to quit medical school to support & take care of my daughter in every way I can. Since her sickness was VERY sudden & unexpected we are asking for donations for Food, Medical, & Transportation expenses that Medicaid doesn't cover & bills piling Up on Us. Anything helps. Jolynn needs you. Thank you so much for taking time to read her story & for any donations or prayers. We do have a Facebook page with Her updates of her Journey; it's under:
Love For Jolynn
God bless you & your family.