Prayers for Blaze

Edit: After starting the fundraiser for us, Tanisha transferred it over to us to manage. Thanks for all your support and prayers. -Josh & Beth

My name is Tanisha ,

I am starting this go fund me in hopes of alleviating a good friend of mine and her families extra stress while they navigate through a recently devastating diagnosis of their son Blaze. Blaze was recently having mini spells that raised cause for concern. The drs multiple times dismissed the families worries, and with much frustration missed a tumor for months that was recently discovered at the hospital, in this baby boys brain. They have him scheduled for Tues to removed as much of this tumor as they can, before starting chemo. Such a terrifying thing to go through, without the extra worry of work. Food. Gas ( they were transferred to a hospital hours away from home) bills to keep their home. And another child and pets as well. Both Josh and Beth are by their sons side though this and I would love if we could all come together and bless them family.

I would also like to ask to cover this family in your prayers.

Update from Beth ;

This is the update we sent to our family. We have now scheduled surgery for Tuesday.

We are coming home tonight. Beth and I have to discuss a figure out timing, but it looks like the only good next step is surgery to remove as much as possible, then send that out for histopathology and genetic testing to see what it is and go from there if further treatment is needed, or if they just want to monitor it.

The second surgeon, who will probably be the one doing the surgery, said he hasn’t measured it yet, but he would guess the tumor is about 4.5cm, or just under 2 inches. They said it looks like it has been there for a long time, and is not growing quickly if it is growing. They also didn’t see any signs of it getting into any other parts of the brain. They said the surgery is an emergency, so it can wait a little bit, but the second surgeon was saying it would be better to do it in this stage, as the part of the brain it is near is the language center. So at his current age and development, it might set him back and delay his language, but he should be able to recover.

Nero Oncology met with us again right before we left. He will very likely need some sort of chemo after surgery. What type and how intensive it is will depend on what it is on the histopath. He may also need another surgery if they didn’t get enough depending on the histopath. He will likely need imaging (MRI) every 3 months until treatment is finished as well as for a while after treatment to be sure it is not regrowing or spreading. Oncology is not convinced that it is not rapidly growing. They are in agreement that surgery to remove as much as they can is the best option.

The other concerns are:

-Some of the major blood vessels are around that tumor, so they will have to be careful around those. They may be able to “peel” the tumor off of the vessels, but if they don’t feel like they can get them off, they will just leave the portions directly in contact with them and get what they can out.

-Even with being very careful around the vessels and not taking any of the tumor that does not come easily, they could cause a stroke from “irritating” the vessels and causing them to spasm. This is more common in younger kids like Blaze.

-One if his ocular nerves runs right near it, but he hasn’t mapped it out yet to see exactly how close that is.

-The movement for one side of his body also runs very close to where it is, but again, he hasn’t fully mapped it out yet.

-Then some of the normal concerns with surgery like infection. He said they don’t expect enough blood loss to need it, but they would have transfusion ready.

The first surgeon said he would just have hair shaved in a line for the stitches, the second guy (older one) said he wouldn’t be shaving it at all. The stitches will be dissolvable, as will the plate and screw they will use to reattach the bone. It will all be in his hairline.

His recovery in the hospital will be in ICU for up to a week if everything goes to plan, though they both made it clear there were a lot of variables with this type of surgery. He will also likely have swelling on his head and probably his face for up to a month from fluid between the skin and skull.

The first surgeon said it would be an all day surgery, maybe up till 4:30pm, but the second one said he would be shocked if it took him that long.

For now, we are going home on the medication for the seizures, which will probably continue for a while after the surgery, as well as a rescue medicine in case he has one lasting more than 5 minutes.