May 20th changed our lives as a family - we were told Liv has a lesion just shy of 1” in size on her occipital lobe. This lesion must be surgically removed. We were facing surgery just 10 short days later. Two risks involved (1) loss of peripheral vision on all left in both eyes and (2) blood transfusion since location of tumor was pressing again artery. Neither of which happened. Surgery was a success, tumor removed and mri showed nothing remaining. After 14 long days waiting for pathology report we found Liv has Anaplastic Ependymoma - cancer of the central nervous system - this lives in the fluid of the brain and spinal cord. If spinal mri and spinal tap are clear of tumor then we proceed with 6 weeks of radiation everyday for 30-40 minutes at children’s - Siteman center for advanced medicine. The radiation is a proton beam radiation which is more specified to the area of the retraction of tumor area vs past radiation which would hit other areas of brain not affected.
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