Ana’s Story

Site created on October 19, 2008

Ana is heading into her junior year in high school in the fall.  She has a generous spirit and a heart of gold.  She's endured a lot in her young life, and taught us more lessons than we've taught her. She started fighting cancer when she was just 3 years old, blowing our minds with her resilience and perseverance.  She's knocked out years of treatments, now in her 8th line of treatment for this stubborn tumor.


Our family lives in Rochester, Minnesota.  Kevin works at the Mayo Clinic as a nurse anesthetist.  Heather is an OT working with seniors doing  in-home maintenance therapy part time; but focuses most on being  mom.  We have two extraordinary daughters. Ana was born in 2005 and Elsa was born in 2007.  (Clearly, well ahead of Frozen, in case you were wondering)

Ana started having early morning vomiting just after her 3rd birthday in July 2008, and we discovered a tumor in her brainstem.  It is in a very delicate place, making it inoperable.  She underwent a suboccipital crainectomy and a port placement in October 2008. The biopsy revealed a grade 1 pilocytic astrocytoma, and her treatments have looked like this:

- Carboplatin Vincristine (October 2008-January 2010)
- Vinblastine (October 2012- July 2013)
- Proton Beam Radiation (August/September 2013)
- TPCV (November 2018-July 2019)
- Carboplatin (September 2019-January 2020)
- Trametinib (January to May 2020)
- Surgical Decompression (May 2020)
- Everolimus (July 2020-September 2022)

The treatments have been hard, the side effects immense, yet she preservers! Time between treatments was mostly rehabilitating, before another blow and time to suit back up for battle.  We have learned to live amidst it, and she has worked to thrive despite it.  Her story is long.  Thanks for being a part of it.

Newest Update

Nov. Update!!

Journal entry by The vanKoeverden Family —

Hi everyone,

Happy November! I can’t believe that 2023 is almost over. I am now a senior in high school and getting ready for the next steps ahead of me. I have been on a ton of college tours, and have narrowed my search down. I am still not sure where I want to go, but I still have time to decide!  I am strongly leaning toward a career in nursing or social work. 

I had an MRI about a month ago, and I am STILL stable!!!! My family was so excited to hear this news! I have now been off treatment for a little over a year, and I am so grateful. We got the go-ahead from Schwartzy to push scans out a little further apart.  With me planning on going to college in August (it’s going to be here so fast) we are going to do the next scan around April and a final one before I leave!

I am enjoying my senior year for the most part, making the best of it! I am going to the gym, taking some classes at high school, another at CTECH and one at RCTC, and then I enjoy that I get to work with kids at SACC (Rochester's after school child care). I am loving my CNA course that I am taking, and get to go to clinicals in December which I am SO excited about! I am getting excited for college, I am ready to start a new chapter in my life!

I am so thankful for everyone being behind me all these years! I hope everyone has a good (despite cold, maybe even snowy) November! 

Ana 
Read More of the journal titled "Nov. Update!!"
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