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Brandon, Jake and Ben at the Bills game in Buffalo.
Jake - 8 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, January 14, 2013 9:14 AM CST Hello! Just wanted to put an update on here to say Jake is doing great! He has recovered so well from last year's meningitis and we have had no issues with that since then. We are vigilant with the antibiotics when he has a persistent cold and watch him closely for any symptoms of infection. He has done so well, though, that he has not been on antibiotics since last May!
He is a sophomore and nearing his 16th birthday! He is doing great at school and is very busy on the Debate team.
This is the 10 year anniversary of his diagnosis! It has been such a journey! We are so thankful for all the wonderful people who helped get us this far! We can't say thank you enough! We have been reminded in thinking back to where we were 10 years ago of what a miracle story Jake's is. We know his odds of survival were so low when we found his tumor. We really never thought we'd see him get to first grade let alone turn 16.
The 8th annual CureSearch Walk for Children's Cancer is coming up June 1st in Omaha from 8-10 am at Village Pointe. I am chairing again this year with much help from my silent partner Steve and the great team of ladies that make up the planning committee. Our team is named G.I. Jake and we always appreciate your support in honor of Jake! Please go to www.curesearchwalk.org for more info in how to help save lives through children's cancer research!
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