Welcome to Erin's webpage.

Erin is a 3 year old little girl who was diagnosed with a brain tumor just after her 1st birthday.
She had brain surgery shortly after diagnosis. The surgery left half of the tumor in her head, and
left her blind.
She completed her first round of chemotherapy between June 2002 and October 2003.
On May 27, 2004 during a rountine MRI, the tumor had shown
about a 15% growth.
In July 2004, Erin began a new round of chemotherapy. On September 27, 2004 another MRI was completed.
Due to the continued growth of the tumor, surgery was not an option.
In October 2004, Erin began 6 weeks of intensive
radiation therapy.
She completed treatment on
December 2, 2004.
Since radiation has ended, it
has been a roller coaster ride.
Erin returned to school in January.
At the same time she developed sombulance syndrome, which meant
she was tired all of the time.
That lasted about a month. Once
the effects of that passed, Erin
started getting severe headaches again. At first it was attributed to the swelling as a
result of the radiation.
But after continued use of various medicines did not alleviate her pain, the tumor team ordered
a new MRI on March 21, 2005.
The scan showed that tumor has not grown, but Erin was beginning show a re-emergence of hydrocephalus. As a precaution the doctors placed Erin on steroids in an attempt to counteract
the swelling.
They did not work.
On April 5, Erin was admitted into the hospital with severe swelling in the two ventricules that
transport fluid into and out of the brain.
As a result of the severe swelling, the neurosurgeon told us that he was not sure Erin was going
to make it through the night.
She did.
The next morning Erin had a shunt inserted. Since the surgery, Erin has not complained of
anymore severe headaches.
Erin is now back at school full time and loving it. She is having fun again.
She lives with her Mom, Dad, little brother Bill and Grandma.
She loves to dance and sing.

Journal

Friday, July 6, 2007 2:15 PM CDT

It has been awhile since last update.Erin was still battling her ear infections and started seeing an ent doc. It lasted for months. They are clear now but we still get her ears checked. Erin celebrated her 6th birthday in February. She had a party at pump it up. She liked it and had fun bouncing in the inflatables. The week of her birthday she was in the hospital with the stomach flu.It was vey bad.It was awful seeing her throw up all day.It lasted a good week.Billy got it real bad also.Easter bunny was good to Erin & Billy.They had their pics taken with the bunny.She went on more field trips with her vision class.She had a spring assembly in school.She sang songs.She is still singing them.She also graduated kindergarten!There was a ceremony and they wore caps.The best thing of all was she walked down the aisle herself with her cane(Joe). It was so touching. It was a surprise for us to see her do that.She is our first grader now.We had a party for her. Her friends and family were there. She had a blast.Erin went to a cancer day camp for a week.It was great. She had fun. They did all sorts of fun things.They went to a water park,hidden cove park,rode in limos,saw surf's up & many more things.Her friend Josh and his brother also went.Billy was not able to go this year. She had a MRI last month and everything is the same.At that point, her port stopped working again.We went for bloodwork different days and nothing.We went to see another surgeon and it will be taken out and another one put in on the other side of her chest.July 13 is her surgery.She might have to stay over night.We have to wait and see.This will be port #4.The others she stayed overnight.She went for a doppler study of her veins Monday to make sure she has no blood clots.We are waiting for the resuls. Her doc is on vacation this week. Erin and Bill went in the pool in the yard.It is a blow up one with a basketball net. They love it.Erin has been busy so far doing fun things with us.We went to Great America and went to the new wiggles world.It was fun.Erin has been enjoying her summer so far.Keep Erin in your prayers next week.

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E-mail Author: marymcd14@aol.com