Alexander Brown was born November 13, 2007. On his 2nd birthday, he started to walk funny like a drunk man, had a head tilt, prefered his left hand, and had intentional tremors. As the time passed, he had trouble eating, was crabby all the time, threw up almost every night, and when asked where he hurt he pointed to his head. On December 18, 2009, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He had brain surgery on December 21, 2009, to remove a lemon sized tumor. He was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma but it was actually ETANTR or Embryonal Tumor with Abundant Neurophil and True Rosettes. He was only the 36 case WORLD WIDE! Alexander had 3 rounds of chemotherapy. He didn't throw up once! It was like he was immune to chemo, little did they know he was. His blood counts went down after chemo and he always got a fever after 10 days. His MRI after the 3 rounds showed 5 tumors in his spine. Spinal fluid was still clear. This really baffled the doctors. They decided to continue the high dose chemo plus add intrathecal chemo (chemo giving directly to spinal fluid). They did this for 5 weeks then had another MRI. It showed the tumors were still growing and now he had another 9 mm brain tumor. Radiation was his only hope. Alexander came for his MRI August 17, 2010, and it showed his 2 brain tumors had grown into one. It was blocking his ventricals. The fluid in his head couldn't drain and the pressure was building. August 23, he had a 2nd brain surgery. They drilled a hole in his 3rd ventricle to drain the fluid on his brain. They then installed an external ventrical drain and removed the large mass. When they started removing the mass, they found it was still maligant tumor. The doctor could only remove half of it because she was afraid of hitting the brain stem and blood vessels. His tumor was fast growing, chemo resistant, and they had given all the radiation they could to him. All that was left was experimental medicine. Unfortunately, you usually have to be 6 months off radiation to qualify for a trial. Because his tumor grew to that size every 2 and 1/2 months and they were only able to remove half of it, he would probably need another surgery in 6 weeks. The doctors said since it grew so fast they wouldn't do surgery again because he would be in the hospital forever. When the tumor gets to a certain size, it will block the ventricles and the pressure will build because of water on the brain. They could install a shunt which would lower the pressure by draining the fluid. That meant he would live long enough to feel the effects of the tumor. Without a shunt he would have about 2 months left. With it he would live longer but the tumor would paralyze him and he would be in pain until the end. October 22, Alexander had a seizure and slipped into a coma. On October 23, 2010, Alexander became an angel at 1:09 a.m.
We love you, Alexander! I hope you're having a huge party!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
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