
Elijah's Long Road to Recovery
Elijah Whiteside is a sweet 5 year old boy who was sent to have a MRI approximately one week ago where his parents received the unimaginable news. The MRI revealed a large tumor growing on his brain. He was immediately sent to Levine's Children Hospital in Charlotte, NC for an emergency surgery. After the surgery was complete and the tumor was removed he was diagnosed with Anaplastic Medulloblastoma, which is an aggressive form of brain cancer that can spread to the spinal cord.
This sweet boy has a long road to recovery. Just from the surgery alone, he was diagnosed with Posterior Fossa Syndrom, which is a group of neurological symptoms that can occur primarily in children after brain tumour surgery. Elijah will need rehablillatation for weeks where he will go through the struggle of physical thearpy, occupational thearpy, and speech thearpy to regain his ability to speak, to see, to walk, and to learn many other every day functions. He will then begin radiation and chemotherapy treatments to help treat the cancer.
Insurance will do its part, but both Mom and Dad are facing time out of work with Mom out of work for at least a year. Along with travel expenses (which consists of a daily 40 minute drive from home to the hospital) and countless other obstacles, this family needs all the help they can get.
Please consider helping Jacquelyn Whiteside and her son Elijah in any way possible and continue to keep Elijah and his family in your prayers.