Jake’s Story

Site created on September 13, 2018

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.


One week ago, we learned that Jake has a brain tumor on his pituitary gland.  They found it in an MRI that was ordered due to horrible headaches with increasing pain, pressure, hearing and vision changes. For the past week, Jake has undergone lots of testing to try and come up with a diagnosis and a plan.  Jake and I visited the brain surgeon today for a consultation to review the tests results and the plan for treatment. 


Diagnosis: Jake's tumor is rather large and has invaded the cavernous sinus and is surrounding the carotid arteries. This means his case is a little more complicated than some others and the entire tumor will not be able to be removed. The tumor is called a benign neoplasm pituitary, macroadenoma. It's causing damage to his peripheral vision, low production of certain hormones and obstructive hydrocephalus. Obstructive Hydrocephalus means the tumor is blocking the flow spinal fluid out of the brain so he has extra fluid in his brain. In his case, the tumor is blocking the flow of fluid in the third ventricle.

Plan for Treatment: Jake needs to have surgery on Tuesday morning. They'll go in through his nose and debulk the tumor as much as they can. If they cannot get enough of the tumor out they will need to do another surgery where they go in through the skull to get at it. Jake will need a couple of weeks to recover, as long as there are no complications.


Future Outlook: Because the entire tumor cannot be removed, he may need more surgery in the future to further debulk the tumor, radiation therapy to stunt growth of the tumor and hormone therapy.


So yeah, this was definitely on the list of nightmares that we never thought would happen to our family. It's all happening very fast. We are very hopeful but also very scared. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. If I'm not able to talk to you personally in the next few weeks it's because I'm taking care of Jake and the 3 little boys.  I'll do my best to post updates on this site so all of you, our loved ones can know how Jake is doing. 


God has blessed us with an amazing network of friends and family and we know he can make miracles happen. We love you all! Thank you for your support!


-Rachel

Newest Update

Journal entry by Rachel Allen

Jake had his post op visits this week with the Neurosurgery department and the Head and Neck Surgeon. Both visits went great! Everything is healing well and Jake continues to feel better every day. The neurosurgeon told Jake most people go back to work after 4 or 6 weeks but if you know Jake, you know that he is very anxious to get back to work so they let him start working today and it's only been 2 weeks and 1 day since his surgery. He is only supposed to be working half days and is working from home but I'd say his stress level is lower when he is able to work. 

Jake was having headaches for a few days but they seem to have subsided, at least for now. He still gets tired and needs to nap every day to muster up the energy to help out with the kids in the evening. Jake is working on getting his hormones into balance. It's a game of adjusting dosages, getting blood tests, readjusting, etc. There are some minor side effects that go along with the hormonal imbalances but we're hoping that it will all be figured out soon.

The little boys and I are so happy to have him at home where he is loved and well cared for. <3 Thank you again, to everyone for your continued support and prayers.

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