by Chaqera
In February 2007, my daughter Briana got a cold. Like most 3 yrs old she complained a lot and wanted to receive extra attention.She was a bit drowsy and seemed to not be able to walk so I thought it was just fatigue.Until one morning after being sick for a few days she was really weak and could barely stand I decided to take her to the E.R. When we got there the triage nurse asked her to step on the scale when she did she literally collapsed. Scared she may of hit her head when she fell the dr on duty requested they take a CAT scan just to be on the safe side. While they took the x-ray I was telling the dr about the way she had been the past few days she initially said it may have been a case of the flu it was going around because of the weather. Well when the dr got the results from the scan her and a few other doctors were called into a room those same Doctors came to my room. I thought maybe she bumped her head and they were just coming to talk as a formality. When one of the Doctor introduced herself as a neurologist my worst fears had come true she told me Briana had a tumor on her brain stem. I felt my heart stop beating. She took me into another room and showed me the x-ray. She said she had whats called a Pontine Glioma. I had never heard of a glioma before. They explained to me it was actually one of the more common brain tumors that affect children.At that point my own head started to spin I felt like I was gonna faint. They immediately began the process to admit her. They told me however the prognosis for a child with this type of tumor is not very high especially considering the location and size. I was told that chemotherapy is not usually used because it hadn't been shown to help but that radiation may be used to possibly shrink the tumor. So I basically was given the option to allow her to go through radiation and possible shrink the tumor and preserve her quality of life a bit longer or give her medicines to keep her comfortable as her condition got worst. I told the Dr I wanted to do whatever was needed to give my child a quality life at the time the quantity wasn't as important. I just didn't want her to live her life in a vegetative state. This happened Feb 25 2007 Briana had 6 weeks of high dose radiation she spent the first week in the children's hospital were they had decided to give her a tracheotomy because she wasn't eating properly without aspirating her food.The remaining 5 weeks she spent in a rehabilitation hospital.Because she wasn't walking they wanted to keep her active so she would walk again.In May she walked out the hospital only to wake up 2 weeks later unable to walk so she was given a wheelchair.After another month of tests and rehab. The Dr told me the radiation had helped but where the tumor began to shrink on one side the other side of the tumor was growing.And at that point there wasn't really much more that could be done. But the Dr had a great surprise for her they had reached out to the Make a Wish foundation. She got to go to Walt Disney World she didn't get to see the dolphins like she wanted because of the weather but she enjoyed herself though. After 6 months of fighting Briana passed away on August 26,2007 at the age of 3 just 3 months shy of her 4th birthday.Through her journey I learned a lot about not only her but myself. I saw my child in her worst moments and she still managed to smile as much as possible. I also learned that when it comes to our children as parents when we think something is wrong we definitely need to to be quick to take action and keep our children with regular extensive check ups!! Because in most cases these illnesses can be caught and treated early!!
