Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
In early January Audrey told us she was "seeing two things" or as we would say, having double vision. We took her to the eye doctor and she got glasses, which we have now learned, she does not need. When this didn't clear up the double vision, we went to an ophthalmologist in Mankato. After a thorough exam, he recommended us to a pediatric ophthalmologist in Rochester. After visiting the pediatric ophthalmologist he said the only way we can figure out what is causing this is to have an MRI. The MRI showed something abnormal on Audrey's brain stem. On February 6, Audrey was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. We met with a team of pediatric doctors in Rochester including an oncologist, a radiation oncologist, a neurologist and a neuro surgeon. It was decided that Audrey would need a biopsy of the tumor to make 100% sure what it was to properly treat it. She had the biopsy on February 20th and it was confirmed that it was a cancerous pontine glioma tumor on her brain stem. It's not operable because of where it is located, on the pons of the brain stem. The brain stem is the control center of a persons brain, so operating on it is too risky. Risks were involved with the biopsy also, but Audrey had no complications. Audrey will begin radiation on the tumor in Mankato starting the first week of March and it will be a 6 week program, every day for 6 weeks with weekends off to try and shrink this tumor, if not completely wipe it out. Audrey is a trooper through all of this, she never complains about her double vision, she has just learned to deal with it. She has had no other symptoms as of yet, which we are thankful for. We are hoping for the best with this radiation and we will keep all of our friends and family updated on this site throughout her journey.
