Jay is a fun-loving 14 year old who loves everything about video games…all of them! Jay was 13 years old when he was diagnosed with brain cancer, called Medulloblastoma. He was having headaches and vomiting and we took him to the emergency room in our home town. He was taken by air ambulance to a bigger hospital that was capable of performing the surgery he needed to remove the tumor. He had his first 9-hour brain surgery in North Carolina.
We made the decision to take him to St Jude in Memphis for treatment. Once we got there his team decided he would have another brain surgery to remove what was left of the tumor. He had another 8 hour surgery at a children’s hospital in Memphis.
He then had 30 proton radiation treatments, the first 17 to his entire brain and spine and then 13 to just the tumor bed. At that point we were able to go home for a 5 week break.
He is now in the middle of his course of chemo, with three rounds down and four rounds to go. Each round of chemo averages 28 days. He begins his fourth round on Saturday.
While it has been very difficult to have our family temporarily separated for his treatment we are thankful for many things throughout this process. The support of our family, friends, and community has been amazing. The care he has received at St.Jude and the kindness and care of the people who work there have been beyond what we could have imagined. We have also met some wonderful people in Memphis and we have felt very welcome here.
Jay is the strongest person I have ever known and has had such a positive attitude throughout all of this. Despite his
Hope session by Nichole Park Photography | Facebook | Instagram