Journal entry by Ellia Karantonis —
Welcome everyone! We created this site as a way to keep our friends and family informed of Ellia’s diagnosis and progress. We hope this helps our family near & far. Please keep us all in your prayers as we prepare for the upcoming surgery and recovery.
On Tuesday February 20th Ellia delivered our second son, Peter. After an all natural birth free of any medications, Ellia felt wonderful! It wasn’t until Thursday night around 1 am that things changed. Evan had been working late that night and got back to the hospital around midnight. Ellia mentioned not feeling well but thought it was a mixture of hunger and dehydration. While nursing the baby she noticed her right side went numb. Nurses were called and soon the room filled with nurses, and eventually a team from the ICU.
An MRI was ordered to see if Ellia had suffered a stroke. The results come back negative for signs of a stroke, but there was a noticeable lesion on her cerebellum. A second MRI (this time with contrast) was scheduled and it was confirmed that there was indeed a solid mass and cystic mass in the right side of her cerebellum.
The chief of neurology came to speak with Ellia and discuss her options.
Dr. Rosenblast is confident that the tumor, most likely a pilocytic astrocytoma as well as the cyst attached to it, can be completely resected through minimally invasive surgery. He is hopeful that it is benign. CT scans did not show signs of tumors in the other organs often related to pilocytic astrocytoma.
We are hoping the surgery can be scheduled ASAP, and Ellia is preparing as best she can while also recovering postpartum. She will face a long recovery but hopefully it will bring relief to some of the chronic symptoms she has been suffering from for many years but thought was related to stress and wisdom teeth.
On Tuesday February 20th Ellia delivered our second son, Peter. After an all natural birth free of any medications, Ellia felt wonderful! It wasn’t until Thursday night around 1 am that things changed. Evan had been working late that night and got back to the hospital around midnight. Ellia mentioned not feeling well but thought it was a mixture of hunger and dehydration. While nursing the baby she noticed her right side went numb. Nurses were called and soon the room filled with nurses, and eventually a team from the ICU.
An MRI was ordered to see if Ellia had suffered a stroke. The results come back negative for signs of a stroke, but there was a noticeable lesion on her cerebellum. A second MRI (this time with contrast) was scheduled and it was confirmed that there was indeed a solid mass and cystic mass in the right side of her cerebellum.
The chief of neurology came to speak with Ellia and discuss her options.
Dr. Rosenblast is confident that the tumor, most likely a pilocytic astrocytoma as well as the cyst attached to it, can be completely resected through minimally invasive surgery. He is hopeful that it is benign. CT scans did not show signs of tumors in the other organs often related to pilocytic astrocytoma.
We are hoping the surgery can be scheduled ASAP, and Ellia is preparing as best she can while also recovering postpartum. She will face a long recovery but hopefully it will bring relief to some of the chronic symptoms she has been suffering from for many years but thought was related to stress and wisdom teeth.
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