Way to go, Jakieboy!!!

Jake - 5 years cancer free!


Welcome to Jacob's Web Page! Jake was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma of his skull (temporal bone)on Feb 1, 2003. In January of 2003, Jake started having mild headaches 2-3 times a week. We made an appointment with our pediatrician and he sent us for an MRI (thanks Dr. Harrison!). The MRI showed a lemon size tumor in his head, smashing his cerebellum. Jake's tumor was hypervascular - there was no way to biopsy it and there were doubts that it could be removed surgically without Jake bleeding to death. With the work of our neurosurgeon, Dr. Hellbusch, consulting docs around the country, it was decided to do an Embolization Surgery and then try and remove the tumor. At that time the consensus was that his tumor was probably a benign brain tumor with the small possiblity of it being a sarcoma. After the Embolization surgery done at the University of Iowa by Dr. Chaloupka, we were ambulanced back to Omaha Children's Hospital where Jake's tumor was almost completely removed in a miracle surgery in which he lost 8 units of blood (about 3 times his total blood volume) on January 28th. He had survived the surgery, but our greatest fear was realized when pathology showed the tumor to be Ewing's Sarcoma - a highly malignant bone tumor that rarely occurs in the skull. Jake's year of treatment included 14 rounds of chemotherapy (at Children's) and 5 and a half weeks of radiation (IMRT - at the Univ. Of Nebraska Medical Center) in which he suffered a 3rd degree burn. His treatment ended in December of 2003. During his routine scans done on Sept 22nd, 2005 evidence of new tumor was seen, and Jake had a mastoidectomy to determine what the abnormality was. Thankfully, pathology reports showed it to be scar tissue from radiation! We had Jake's last set of scans on December 11th, 2008. He has reached the "cure" mark and is done with scans! Jake has permanent hair loss from radiation and some trouble with walking and running from the chemo, but overall he is doing great! We have received such unbelievable help and support from so many - thank you - you are a huge part of why Jake is doing so well!

Other children dear to our hearts (More site listed below under links):

Angel Lizzie (1992-2006) Hepatablastoma

Joshua Larson (7) with relapsed Pleuropulmonary Blastoma-now back in remission!!!


Angel Tanner(1998-2007)Ewing's Sarcoma

Angel Brant (1998-2005) Ependymoma.

Angel Benjamin (1997-2005) Medulloblastoma

Journal

Monday, June 8, 2009 8:27 AM CDT

Good morning! Thanks so much to all of you that supported our team, G.I. Jake, in the Omaha Milestones Walk for Childhood Cancer! We had our best year yet with raising $11,370! That is $4000 more than G.I. Jake has ever raised and it put us in third place! We have some of the most amazing friends that went above and beyond this year to raise money for G.I. Jake! I still can't believe our total! A lot of our friends are volunteers and sponsors too. We can't thank you all enough!

The walk itself raised $140,000! That brings our 4 year walk total over $500,000! The rain clouds parted right as we arrived to set things up. Even better, at the exact moment that we started the memorial balloon release, the sunshine came out. Those kids were with us and it was an awesome moment! If you still want to donate, you can! The walk will be open for a couple of months. You can go to www.curesearch.org/events to donate.

Now we can enjoy the summer. As much as they love it, the boys are always happy when mom is done organizing the walk. We will explore the fun stuff in and around Omaha, spend time at the lake and finish up the boys' baseball seasons. It really is so fun watching them play. We are lucky too as the boys have good coaches and we have very nice parents to sit on the bleachers with. Steve and I still catch our breath at times watching the boys play. We are just so thankful to have 3 healthy boys to root on and watch grow.

Thanks again for everyone's support for the Omaha Milestones Walk for Childhood Cancer. CureSearch is making sure that childhood cancer research happens. Research is the only thing that will make sure all kids with cancer live. Please remember to donate to CureSearch not just for the walk, but all year!

Thanks for checking in on us!

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E-mail Author: scbkab@cox.net

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