#LaceyStrong ~ A journey to fight Brain Cancer

Meet Lacey (Lacey j)

(Short Video included. Click the helicopter picture above)

Lacey is a child full of life.  She’s funny, thoughtful, and gregarious. 

March 25th…The day our family’s whole world was turned upside down.  Lacey was taken to the Emergency Room.  She wasn’t feeling good.  She was having a hard time eating and keeping anything down.  In addition, she began having blurred vision and numbness in her arm.  Mom (Kim) and Dad (Chris) were scared.  The thought was, get her looked at, maybe IV fluids to make sure she isn’t dehydrated.  Everything is going to be ok.  Mom and Dad were ready to find out that they may have over reacted.  Lacey is the youngest girl of 4 children, and they were concerned but thought that she just had a flu.  Afterall, it was cold and flu season, there was this scary virus going around.  Better to be safe than sorry. 

The doctor didn’t think it was a flu… He recognized right away that her balance was off as well as her vision.  He quickly ordered CT Scans & blood work. 

THE NEWS THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

The doctor returned and asked to speak with Kim and Chris separately.  They knew this couldn’t be good.  He looked at them and said I’m so sorry….  Lacey has a large tumor in her brain.  Additionally, there is swelling in her brain.  We will need to give her medication to help reduce this welling.  He then proceeded to tell us that she would need to be seen by a special group of doctors at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.  If we approved, arrangements would be made right away. 
 
There are no words to describe the next several hours to days…..the thoughts of despair, uncertainty and helplessness were unimaginable. 

Lacey was flown to Nicklaus Children’s hospital in Miami a couple of hours later.  A specialized team of doctors awaited her arrival.   On March 27, 2020, Lacey had a 12 hour emergency surgery to remove the tumor which was described as being the size of a lemon from her brain. 
 
Lacey was now in a fight for survival. 

 She was only 13 years old going into that surgery on the 27th.  Her birthday was March 28th….Would she make it to 14?  Would we get the chance to say Happy Birthday one more time?  When you think of the life of a teenage girl, what comes to mind?  A girl who giggles with her group of friends in the hallway, goes shopping at the mall, goes to pool parties and school dances, plays sports and maybe even has a boyfriend.  Not brain surgery.
 
For hours the wait was unbearable.  Walking the halls, pacing, crying, talking, someone bringing up a memory of something funny Lacey did, some example of her strength, giving words of encouragement, holding onto hope, praying for mercy and putting more love than a heart could hold out into the Universe. 
 
Finally, we were called into the recovery area!  The surgery is over.  Lacey was in recovery in the ICU.  They did what they could do to remove the tumor.  The tumor was sent for analysis in California.  We would need to wait for the results as Lacey began her recovery.    
 
It’s amazing how one day changes everything.  All of the hopes, dreams and future plans can be taken for granted.  It’s hard to live in a state of realizing that it might not happen and most of us don’t.  So when something occurs that brings that truth so close to you that you can’t ignore it, it’s numbing, it catastrophic and terrifying.

Just days after surgery, the devastating pathology results were in.  Lacey has an extremely aggressive and rare form of Brain Cancer call Anaplastic Ependymoma.  Although the surgeon was hopeful to have removed the tumor, there is significant chances of it returning.  Lacey will need to endure 6 ½ weeks of Proton Radiation in the attempt to kill any cancer cells that may remain and attempt to reduce the chance of them returning.  Her family will commute an hour and a half each way to Miami, 5 days a week.  This will be followed by 3 additional months of recovery.  Next steps will be determined based on results.  We are uncertain as to what this will mean for our beautiful Lacey.  A few but not all of the deficits discussed with us are hearing loss, hair loss, vision loss as well as hormonal changes. 

Lacey’s parents are working class and as of recently, live in a single income household.  Kim had recently taken a risk and left a 15-year career to help Chris build his fencing company and allow a better work life balance for the family. 

There is so much uncertainty of the days, weeks and months ahead.  We ask for your support in helping Lacey’s family with the already mounting expenses.  We want to help them so that they do not need choose between going to work and being together.     

Lacey J is strong, she is a warrior and she is ready to fight this fight head on.  She isn’t going to give up and neither are we!  Please help us help her family so they can focus on what matters most right now, supporting Lacey J.
 
#LACEYSTRONG