Zahra’s Story

Site created on September 8, 2018

UPDATE (9/11)- Zahra has been officially accepted at St. Jude! This is very good news. The family leaves Wednesday the 12th for Memphis and will meet with the team of doctors on Thursday. And the hedgehog has a name. Rosa!


Zahra has been diagnosed with a rare and very serious form of brain cancer - Pontine Glioma. We have created this Caring Bridge page to allow all of those who know and love Zahra and her family to have a centralized method of sharing information. To all Zahra’s close family and friends, thank you all so much for your amazing support. We are at the beginning of a very difficult process and already the outpouring of love has been enormous. 

For those of you who may not know them well, Adam and Leyla Perkins have four children: Mina (18), Xander (16), Zahra (12), and Henry (7).  They are the sole owner/operators of a small landscape architecture business. Leyla is a professional photographer, has homeschooled all the kids, and founded a successful homeschooling group in their home town of Covington, LA. 

On Saturday, August 25th, Zahra was taken to the local ER when she had some visible clumsiness and trouble using her left arm and hand. She was taken by ambulance to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans where tests revealed she has a tumor in her brain at the base of her spine. Unfortunately, the position of the tumor makes it inoperable.  Zahra had biopsy surgery and the pathology results revealed it is a Pontine Glioma. She was allowed to go home a few days afterwards but was quickly readmitted because of fluid and swelling in the brain. She had a second surgery to implant shunts to relieve some of the pressure.  The biopsy also revealed that traditional chemotherapy is not a viable treatment option, so Zahra’s treatment will likely include radiation and possible clinical trials or experimental therapies. 

So that’s where we are right now. Zahra is home and resting with her new pet hedgehog while the family prepares to travel to St. Jude’s in Memphis. We will continue to update this page as we receive more information. 

Please visit our Go Fund Me page at https://www.gofundme.com/support-for-the-perkins-family to help Zahra and her family.

Newest Update

9/18/18

Journal entry by Jordan Bailey —

After a weekend of no appointments, Monday was a full one.  A catscan and meeting with the radiation oncologist, the day was taken up by making sure the radiation was mapped out perfectly.  Today was multiple visits with a nutritionist, eye doc, radiology, oncologist, then back to radiation.  Hoping that she's now coming out of sedation from the first round of radiation.  She also wasn't allowed to eat all day before radiation.  Hoping that changes, as radiation will be 5 days a week for the next 6 weeks.  She'll get a port put in tomorrow to alleviate the many IV's needed throughout radiation.  

The good thing is that a treatment has finally started.  Finally something to try and fix this.  Zahra is hopefully looking forward to a weekend with some friends visiting, as well as her Gram and myself.  Mina travels up Friday with friends, Xander went up to stay a bit this past Sunday with his grandparents, and Henry's been hanging with her the whole time.  -Jordan

 

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