~BRANDON'S STORY~

BRANDON ELAM
March 18, 1991 ~ October 2, 2007
Always Remembered...Never Forgotten

Brandon was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in Aug 2004. After many trips to the hospital and doctor's Brandon was not getting better. On Oct. 22, 2004 Brandon was diagnosed also with Medulloblastoma(brain tumor), that metastasized to his spine. 10-25-04 he had surgery to remove the brain tumor. 11-10-04 he had a shunt placed in his head to relieve the pressure. 11-22-04 we started 30 radiation treatment's with a weekly dose of Vincristine (chemo). From 2-05 to 7-05 Brandon had 6 rounds of heavy chemo in the hospital. He has had clean scans until 9-22-06, when we found out he relapsed. He has Medullablastoma in his bone marrow. This is very rare. He is having 10 radiation treatments on his hip and he is taking an oral form of chemo (VP-16) at home. If the chemo works he will have a stem cell transplant from his own blood. After 1 round of the oral chemo scans showed more tumors. We are now doing IV chemo (Carboplatin & Etoposide-VP-16) in the hospital. We found out in 6-07 after 6rds of treatment that this was not working anymore and his cancer is spreading. We are now going to try a five day chemo treatment (Temozomide and Irinitecan) We will start this as inpatient and if Brandon does well we can do it in Dr. McMahon's office. It is with much sadness that after two rds of this treatment. We had an MRI and PET Scan done that showed us that the cancer has continued to spread throughout Brandon's body. As of 8-27-07 we have all decided that we have run out of option's and we are not going to have anymore treatments. We do not know how much time Brandon has left, but we are going to live everyday like it is his last and make a lot of happy memories. Please keep praying for Brandon and our family to make it thru this. Thanks for all the love and support.
PLEASE LEAVE BRANDON A MESSAGE UNDER GUESTBOOK.








Brandon's Make-a-Wish trip to Atlantis (Bahamas) 7-06

Cool Slideshows

Journal

Sunday, March 18, 2012 2:31 PM CDT

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY BRANDON!!!

Wow I can't believe you are 21 today. I also can't believe you are not here for all of us to celebrate it together. I know you are having a great party in heaven. We went to the cemetery and left you balloons we also sent you 21 blue balloons to heaven and Brooke and Jordan sent their own balloon. I can't wait until you get them. That is are way of celebrating with you.

We all miss you so much and think about you all the time. I just try to imagine how you would look, what your voice sounds like,and if you were still here what you would be doing. Would you be in college and if so where would you be, what would you be going for. Who would your friends be, would you have a girl friend. Those are so hard for me to grasp. I watch Brooke grow up and the way she has changed into a beautiful young lady and makes me try to picture you.
I know you would be so handsome.

I can't believe you have been gone for 4 1/2 years now and we have celebrated your birthday without you here for 4 years. It is so hard for us, but I just keep thinking hopefully we will all be together soon. You just brought such joy to our family and you completed us. We have not been the same since you left, but we do go on everyday because we told you we would. You would be so proud of your sister. She has turned into a beautiful young lady, she is so sweet and kind, she has done great in school, she was the Homecoming Queen this year and her and Jordan wrote a play about Cancer (it was about your story Brooke was the one with cancer and Jordan was her sister) that they won awards on. You would be so proud of her. She is going to New York City for college this summer so you will have to watch over her for me. It is going to be sad for me and dad to have her so far away, but we want her to live her dream. We have learned from you that you never know what tomorrow will bring so live for today.

I love you very much and can't wait until we are all together again. I also miss you more then you will ever know. You Have a great birthday.
xoxoxoxoxo

Love
Mom,Dad and Brooke
The very proud parents and sister to ^Brandon^ our very special ANGEL

Hospital Information:

~HEAVEN~

Links:

E-mail Author: selam46@carolina.rr.com

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