Joseph and his brother enjoy a good fart joke (LOL). They also love going kayaking and playing video games.
Joey was diagnosed in 2019 with “CNS Embryonal Tumor – NOS” on the left side of his brain. Before his diagnosis, he was going cross-eyed and seeing double so we took him to the ER and a CT scan showed that he had a brain tumor. He went through 33 rounds of radiation and 6 months of inpatient treatments before finally having NED (No Evidence of Disease). He was NED for about 4 months and then showed a faint amount of growth on the opposite side of his brain. Back in 2019, St Jude’s did a pathology report on his original tumor and they found characteristics of Glioblastoma cells so we were going to assume this and treat the new growth as Glioblastoma, however, Methylation testing was requested on a piece of the original tumor and his diagnosis has been updated to “CNS Neuroblastoma, FOXR2-activated”.
This is when things changed completely. We had no better option than waiting for the next MRI and seeing if his tumor grew enough to biopsy, and it did. We have a biopsy scheduled for November 8th; all of the necessary tests to get the most accurate results will be redone so we can determine the correct treatments. This is where we are in his journey at the moment.
Cancer has changed our lives, 100 percent. We moved to be closer to the hospital and are paying triple the amount in bills. We have a younger son as well and he is also affected.
Hope session by Kimberly Tank Photography | Facebook | Instagram