Brain Cancer

I think I'll dedicate this and the possibly the next post or 2, to my experience with brain cancer.  No I never had it, but my sister was diagnosed when she was 5.  

We were going on our first family vacation.  We rented a motor home and the plan was to head to the Grand Canyon following Route 66 and then hit the west coast up to Oregon then head back east to Michigan.  Well it didn't happen that way.  We made it to the Grand Canyon and it was there that we discovered what would change our lives forever.

I was 8 and Jamie was 5 we were playing in the back of the motor home on my parents bed.  We started this game where she would climb on my back and I'd buck her off.  It was great fun until she slammed her head on the bedside cabinet.  She cried, mom came and I apologized.  Turns out I most likely saved her life by doing that.  Over the next couple days she started staggering, nothing super serious but her footing was just a little off.  It gradually got worse and it was decided that she should get checked out.  Thinking maybe she had a little swelling or something, due to the hit.  It was a Sunday afternoon my parents left my older brothers at the RV park and me and my dad dropped my mom and sister off at the ER (the only thing open in the small town on a Sunday) and we returned to the park to swim and wait to pick them up.  What happened next was what I heard from my mom when I was older.  My mom went to the receptionist and described that Jamie was staggering, to which the lady said "are you sure she's not doing this for attention?"  My mom replied "She's the youngest of 5 kids, she gets plenty of attention."  The doctor did the usual questions etc and decided to run a CT.  It was the results that shocked not only us but the doctor as well.  He came in to the room and said, "there's no easy way to say this but your daughter has a brain tumor go home."  It was the first pediatric brain tumor ever discovered in that hospital.  Needless to say the receptionist came back and apologised profusely. 

My dad and I picked up mom and Jamie from the ER and headed back to pack up.  We were told a little of what was going on but at 8 I had no clue what a brain tumor meant exactly.  We drove straight through stopping only for gas and food.  My mom would drive during the day and my dad and 2 oldest brothers would take turns at night.  It was different all of a sudden my parents didn't want Jamie walking from the back to front of the motor-home by herself while we were driving.  My biggest memory of that trip was seeing my dad cry.  It was something I have never seen before and it scared me.  While my dad cried though something happened that looking back I can't believe.  Jamie walked up to him and said "Don't worry daddy I'm not going to die"