My name is Christy Marks and I’m AJ’s mom. I decided to create this blog as a way to tell the story of AJ’s journey through Medulloblastoma in pictures.
For those who don’t know, Medulloblastoma is a certain type of brain tumor located at the back of the head near the brain stem.
The backstory is that he’d been having headaches off and on for about a year. They would always go away and we had taken him to our family Dr. who thought they were migraines brought on by stress at school.
March 17th at approximately 6:30 in the morning, our lives as we know them stopped. AJ had a tumor in the back of his brain burst. He was staying with Molly & Steve (maternal grandparents) because we were out of town at a photography convention in Las Vegas. He came to my mom in the morning and said he had another horrible headache. She gave him his medicine (the Dr. had prescribed some medicine for migraines) and he went back to get ready for school. All of a sudden my mom knew something was wrong and went back into his room. He had lost consciousness and was vomiting. They immediately rushed him to St. Elizabeth where they did a CT scan and determined what happened. He was then life-lined by helicoptor to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. Where a team of neurosurgeons headed by Dr. Lauri Ackerman saved his life with the help of God.
Since March 17th AJ has undergone 3 other surgeries and most of his tumor was removed. The rest of it we are taking care of it with radiation & chemotherapy. He is currently undergoing simultaneous radiation and chemotherapy treatments at Riley/IU Hospitals in Indianapolis while we stay at the Ronald McDonald House. We are on number 12 there of 20 treatments. After those are over we go to IU in Bloomington for 10 more intensive photon radiation treatments. He will also be part of a clinical study involving Acutane.
We will get a bit of a break during June and then we will begin intensive chemotherapy at Riley Hospital for 24 weeks.
2 responses so far ↓
Dawn Lorey // May 6, 2008 at 12:48 am
Christy,
Thank you for the powerful and very personal images you are sharing with us. I think of your family often and was wondering if you felt like documenting the scariest time of your lives. Through your lens and with Dad’s intimate accounts of daily life, I am able to witness the strength of your faith and the love you have for
each other. Think of all those who share this journey with you as one really, really big support group !
Missy Fuller // May 29, 2008 at 3:13 am
Hey Christy this is Missy-you will not believe it but we have been praying for you and AJ for several months before I even out all the pieces of the puzzle together. My friend Brenda Pusey had been giving me updates and never really gave enough details to put all the pieces together until last night. And let me tell you-GOD IS GOOD Christy.
My heart goes out to you from one mother to another. You are doing a great job. I want to come and see you and AJ at the hospital are there any restrictions or precautions that I need to take according the hospital.
I love you Christy and I am praying you thru.
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