Kade
When Kade was was 13 months old she fell off a chair and hit her head and was immediately rushed to the ER thinking it was just a bad concussion. We found out she had a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit. They found that the tumor had hemorrhaged inside of itself after she fell causing it to double in size and made her brain swell rapidly. She was kept in an induced coma for 5 days while swelling went down until and it was safe enough to transfer her to Seattle Children’s and do surgery for a tumor resection there. Surgery was a huge success where they were able to resect the entire tumor. A week later pathology came back as cancer. She was diagnosed with Choroid Plexus Carcinoma, a rare brain cancer found in the ventricles. Kade underwent 6 rounds of inpatient chemo every 4 weeks, as well as being admitted between every round for nuetropenic fevers, CDiff, or line infections, as well as 2 autologus stem cell transplants. She also had hydrocephalus where her brain is unable to control the pressure of fluid and had VP Shunt placed.
After 7 months of harsh chemo in and out of the hospital every other week, her scans show she was NED. (has no evidence of disease) She has continued to have clean scans! Treatment was hard and we almost lost her a few times with 3 different ICU stays, including sepsis, but she pulled through.
Kade's skull bone flap started to resorb where they took the tumor out and did not heal back together property. Nearly a year later, they did surgery to take that bone out and put an artificial plate in her skull. Three weeks later it got infected so the plate had to come out. She wore a helmet for six months then they tried again. Unfortunately, the same thing happened and she got another infection so they again had to remove her new skull and wear a helmet for 6 more months. Her last bone flap surgery was successful with no infections. She is 2 years out from her last surgery and doing awesome. After accumulating over 130 overnight stays inpatient and 9 brain surgeries, 2 line placement surgeries, and even dental surgery all from cancer, we are thrilled she is finally healthy and doing well. Kade still suffers some effects from cancer and harsh treatments with severe gran mal seizures, a little bit of hearing loss, loss of her peripheral vision, and some delays in development. Overall she is thriving and we are so proud of her and are incredibly grateful for the many miracles along the way.
