LanceMom

Char

Char and Lance
Char & Lance at Christmas
(Char's Nephew in the background)

Hi, my name's Charlotte and I'm the mother to a wonderful little boy named Lance. Lance was born on September 1, 1995. A healthy baby boy weighing in at 9 pounds and 9 ounces! Everything was going well, until he had his two month check up. It was discovered that Lance had hydrocephalus(water on the brain). Lance had a shunt placed on November 2, 1995. We were told what to look for in case the shunt malfunctioned. It did. On New Year's Day, 1996, Lance was back in the hospital. After that he had 3 more shunt malfunctions. The doctors wanted to see what was the cause of all the malfunctions, so they ordered an MRI.

The MRI showed that there was a mass the size of a golf ball in his brain. They scheduled his sixth operation for just 25 days after his first birthday. After the tumor resection surgery, the biopsy showed that his tumor was cancerous. Lance was diagnosed with PNET. Three weeks later he started chemotherapy. He had Cisplatin, VP-16, and two others that I can't remember now. On December 22, 1996, the doctors told me the horrible news that his most recent MRI had revealed. Lance's tumor was back and it was growing very fast. Chemo wasn't working. They would have to start radiation treatments. no one knew what having radiation treatments to the head and spine of a one year old would do. BUT that was the only option. So, we went ahead. Lance had six weeks of rad. treatment, then on March 5th we stopped. Six weeks later Lance had another MRI, this one gave us the best news in the world! Lance was in remission.

Rocking Baby Lance

It's been two years, and Lance has gone through a lot of B.S. He's been in Pbysical, Occupatioonal, and speech therapy since he was 13 months. He's almost four now. He's doing much better. He's enjoying life and we are enjoying him. Some of the side effects from all of this is that he's on growth hormones, and that he's slightly delayed. We won't know all of his problems until he's older and in school. But we'll deal with them as they come. Well that's the story of my wonderful miracle child.

Lance drinking creamer at his favorite restaurant

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