Chance Van Stippen’s Fight against Brain Cancer

Hi my name is Shayla Van Stippen, I am Chance’s mom and I am fundraising to try and help us through this devastating time.

On September 22nd, I brought Chance into his pediatrician to have him seen because I was worried and sensed something deeper was going on. (A little back story— After the first day of school on the 2nd, Chance came home not feeling well complaining of a headache and began vomitting. He remained sick into the weekend and into that following week. I kept him home from school his whole first week of school. I thought he had the flu due to the vomitting and not being able to keep anything down. He suddenly started to come out of it the 10th and was feeling better and stopped vomitting and his headache was gone. When he woke up from being sick for that week— I immediately noticed his left eye was “googly” and was lazy and he would go cross eyed, his eye was never like this prior and he was complaining of seeing double vision out of that eye, and getting dizzy. (I tried calling to get him into the eye dr (assuming that was who needed to be seen) and they told me it was NOT an emergency and I couldn’t get him in for an emergency visit, so the next appointment wasn’t available until November 3rd. )That Monday came and I kept him home from school for one last day to make sure he was okay before sending him back, he went back to school on the 13th. It was two days later that he started to wake up everyday with a headache and would take ibuprofen to try and help it and would go to school. He would come home and be okay but then a few hours after getting home he would get a spell of nausea and would vomit. All that week I continued trying to call to get him in for an earlier appt at the eye dr, and was continually told it was not an emergency and had to wait until his November 3rd appt. I finally got so fed up I decided I would call his pediatrician to get him in there and see if he could do anything. In my heart, I had a feeling something serious was going on due to his eye and the fact it’s right by the brain, but I didn’t want to believe it.

On the 22nd, we arrived to his doctor appointment at 730 am, and waited till his appointment at 8. The Dr did a normal check over, doing a little more of an extensive one. He then ordered a bunch of lab work, and made the call we needed to do an MRI. We did the lab work and then he went in for his MRI, when he came walking out from his MRI I immediately noticed they had left an IV connection is, my heart sunk and I knew something was coming. The nurse then told me I needed to go upstairs immediately to get the results, we were not to leave, we had to be seen. We went up stairs to his pediatrician, and that’s when I got the heart shattering news. They found extra fluid on Chance’s brain that wasn’t suppose to be there. And that wasn’t all, they found a tumor 4 inches in diameter.

We were then told we would be transferring to Milwaukee hospital where a team of neurosurgeon’s and neuro doctors would be taking care of him.

Within hours of getting to Children’s Milwaukee, I had met so many dr’s, and received so much information. He went in for his first emergency surgery that night. The first surgery was to put a tube in his head to help drain the spinal fluid build up that was being blocked from draining properly because of the tumor which was causing the build up & causing a lot of pressure in his brain. So they placed a tube in his brain, and while in there they did try to create a new pathway for the spinal fluid to drain correctly so that we could hopefully avoid another surgery of placing a permanent shunt in. He did well with those.

Since then it’s basically been a information gathering stage.

On Tuesday the 27th, Chance went in for his second brain surgery. This surgery was to get a biopsy of the tumor so that we can definitively determine what kind of tumor it is. He was placed in the ICU after his second surgery to make sure their was no bleeding in his brain after the surgery and to keep an eye on his vision on the right side and his ability to move the right side. (There was the risk of losing or affecting one of the two with the biopsy). His neurosurgeon did explain to me that because of the location of his tumor, it’s unlikely to be able to remove any of it, so our best treatment may be chemo and radiation. And if the biopsy comes back that based off the kind of tumor/cancer it is that the best option is to try and remove as much as possible— in that choice I would be having to chose as a parent what I prefer him to lose, the ability to move the right side of his body, or his vision.

As we figure out more information and different things happen I will be trying to update on here or on my Facebook.

The money raised will help with the fastly accumulating medical bills, with gas back and forth to the hospital (it is an hour and a half to and from our home). As well as replacing a few needed parts on the vehicle that I have right now, my fiancé and myself share one vehicle at the moment, and it’s on its last leg with all the miles being put on. As well as keeping the house bills paid while being hospitalized, and while my fiancé is off work to help take care of our other two children Caydence (11) and Camdyn (4), and making sure we get them back into school and to and from. It will also help with any other expenses for Chance while he’s in the hospital. As well as help with care for his younger brother and sister, and anything Chance will need in the future.

My family greatly appreciates all the love and prayers we’ve been surrounded with. Keep them coming, please.