From Jen @ The Hansen 4:
"Did you know that brain stem tumors account for 10 percent of pediatric brain tumors? The peak incidence is between the ages of 5 and 10.
Today, I'm going to tell you about a type of brain stem tumor called a Pontine Glioma. Pontine brain stem tumors affect crainial nerves that supply the muscles of the eye and face, and the muscle involved in swallowing. The symptoms include: double vision, the inability to close eyelids completely, the dropping of one side of the face, and difficulty chewing and swallowing. The tumor also affects "long tracks" of the brain, which results in: weakness of the arms or legs, difficulty with speech, or difficulty walking.
The patients symptoms often improve dramatically during or after six weeks of irradiation. Unfortunently, problems recur after 6 to 9 months, and progress rapidly. Survival past 12-14 months is uncommon.
Radiation therapy is the main treatment approach since these types of tumors are inoperable. To improve the outcome of pontine gliomas, researchers are studying drugs that may enhance the effect of radiation therapy.
Now it's time to introduce you to a 4 year old little girl who was diagnosed with a pontine glioma, low grade, on Halloween of this year. Her name is Brynlin Sanders and she has a 4cm inoperable pontine glioma on her brain stem. Brynlin is receiving treatments from the Burzynski Clinic in Houston, TX but is from Wichita, KS. The money that is being donated to Brylin Sanders Medical fund is being used to offset the cost of medical expenses and, since she is being seen in TX, travel expenses.
Recently an update about Brynlin was posted on her fundraising page saying
Brynlin Sanders Medical Fund updates.Dec 17th 2011
December 17th, 2011
It has been so nice to be home the last couple of days! Bryn was ready to be home and she said she didn't want to stay in a hotel, so we were able to drive all the way home without staying overnight somewhere in between. We made it home around midnight on Wednesday.
Bryn has also started her new diet that the nutritionist suggested we put her on. We were able to follow it somewhat while we were in Texas, but now that we are home and not eating out so much we will have to stick to it. This means we will be making a lot of our food from scratch and leaving out a lot of the good stuff! Grandma Sanders brought her some organic oatmeal today. I made it for her and she ate a little bit of it. Later she said she was hungry again, so after she said no to all of my other ideas I asked her if she wanted some more oatmeal. She said, "No I don't like that oatmeal Grandma brought, it doesn't taste." Well at least she's honest! We did however add some cinnamon to it and she decided it wasn't too bad.
As you can see, the goal is to raise $50,000 to help offset the many expenses coming this families way in the future, and only 5 percent of the goal has been met. Please visit Brylin's page and donate if you can... remember, even $5 helps. If you can't leave a donation, why not leave a hug?!?! Let the family know your pulling for them. You can also look for more updates of Brynlin by clicking HERE and clicking the updates tab"
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