Gage
Gage Wedin was diagnosed with a Polycystic Astrocytoma back on December 24th 2015 two weeks after he turned 9 years old. Gage had surgery to remove the large tumor from his brain stem and a second surgery to correct his hydrocephalus.. Since the tumor had grown on very vital parts of his brain the surgeons could not remove all of the tumor.
After a lot of very hard work and dedication Gage went on to make a very successful recovery and was getting back to the things he loved the most towards the beginning of summer 2016. Gage was a Premier Soccer stand out, avid mountain biker and all around sports fanatic. Gage enjoyed the outdoors, being with his friends and family and spending time in Whistler in the summer months. Gage enjoyed skiing or snowboarding since he was just 5 years old and loves snowmobiling. Gage was able to get back to riding his bike, playing both indoor and a little outdoor soccer and even was participating in school track and cross country. He was getting back on track for the most part.
Towards the end of last summer, MRI’s showed a slow growth to the tumors on his brain stem, along his neck and spinal cord. The tumors had continued to grow, both the solid mass and the cyst function of the tumor, causing many sever symptoms. Gage started on Chemo in October of 2016 to try and stop the growth of the major tumor on his brain stem and hopefully stop all other tumor growth as well. The Chemo was going to be a weekly dose, every Wednesday for up to 14 months. At that time the tumors continued to grow at a slow rate, but they were growing and starting to cause some pretty major symptoms, which were now keeping him from a lot of the activities he loved so much, as well as just the ability to be a kid.
His Oncologist did switch Gages chemo April of 2017, due to some complication of the Vincristine. The tumor continued to grow and the growth rate seemed increased as well over the next few months. They got so bad starting in July that Gage lost a lot of his major faculties. He began to lose his peripheral vision, and his sight in his right eye along with his hearing and his balance; which was compromised due to the increases pressure on his brain stem and surrounding areas because of the tumor growth. The pressure on the brain stem and all the adjacent nerves meant that he needed surgery to get these symptoms correct and hopefully he could return to normal life. Gage had to have another complete resection. The surgery seemed to be very successful and he regained his hearing, his balance has greatly improved, his vision is also getting much better. Gage went right back onto chemo just one week after surgery and will be receiving treatments weekly over the next 8 months. We are staying positive that these tumors will not grow back and Gage can get back to being a normal, happy, awesome kid.
