Eli’s Story

Site created on October 27, 2018

Welcome to Eli's website! Eli is a fun, loving, adventurous 7-year-old who was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor back in June. The technical term is Grade 2 Atypical Meningioma. This is very rare in children. In June he had severe headaches and was sick for a week when his pediatrician told us he needed to be seen at Childrens Mercy right away. He was taken in for emergency surgery that night. Most of the tumor was removed but due to its location being so close to a major vein in his brain, they could not remove the whole thing. He also had severe right sided weakness and motor loss but with 3 months of PT and OT, you wouldn't notice any difference! A follow up MRI in September showed that his tumor was more aggressive than originally thought and now the tumor is too big for radiation. We sought a second opinion at Mayo and Eli is now scheduled for another surgery on 11/8 with radiation treatments to follow. They will likely not be able to get the whole tumor out since it is still attached to the vein. This has and will continue to be a long journey but we are making it through and are determined to win! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! Let's show Eli some love and support! 

Newest Update

Journal entry by Samantha Reitan

Sorry I haven't done an update in a while but there really wasn't much to report because Eli is tolerating his treatments so well! Yay! However, he is losing some hair, so we told him he will look like his grandpas!!! 😲🤣 We have had a very busy week celebrating Christmas with family last Saturday, then spending Christmas eve and day with my dad, then family came up from Missouri to visit us for a few days, and to top the week off we went to the TSO concert where we were able to sit by my stepdad. What a fun week!!! We are glad to have a day to rest though. Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers!!!! It means so much to us!!! You are all so wonderful!!! We couldn't do it without you!!!
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