C4BS
Colleen




Brooke


Hi - I'm Colleen and have been married to Bob for 10 years. We are from Ohio and have 2 sons Bobby (9) and Brandon (6) and a daughter - Brooke (20 months).





Our whole nightmare began Feb. 26, 1998 when our seemingly healthy baby girl was diagnosed with stage 4 Hepatoblastoma. Brooke was 13 months old when I discovered a lump on her belly - no other symptoms. Being paranoid I called her doctor and she checked her and sent us directly to the hospital - from that day on the lives of our entire family will never be the same. There was a very large tumor in her liver and it had spread to both lungs. She was given only 1 25% chance to beat this.

Alot has happened since then. Brooke had a liver resection and lost 75% of her liver (3/3/98) and then we began the batlle to get rid of the mets to her lungs. And what a long battle it has been - after 15 rounds of chemotherapy the tumors were still in both lungs. She had such high doses of chemo she would end up in ICU fighting for her life. I don't know how she did it - but she continued to pull through. She is a little miracle and loved by all who meet her! At that point (July 99) Brooke's doctor said there was nothing else to do except try experimental chemo, so oafter much research we chose to go to Dana Farber in Boston for a consult. In Boston they did scans and the Doctor there decided to do surgery to try and remove the lung mets. In July and August she had surgery on each lung and all of the tumors were removed.

The happiness was short-lived, in September on a scan one new spot showed up in her right lung. Since then she has had 2 rounds of chemo and will be rescanned in a couple of weeks to see if it is gone. Her AFP has gone from 500,000 at diagnosis to 10 which is normal. The lives of our entire family will never be the same - but Brooke is battling a very rare and aggressive cancer but she has come so far and we thank God for everyday she is here with us..