bethsplace

Bethany is 17 years old. She was diagnosed at 10 years old with a malignant brain tumor, medulloblastoma, on December 17, 2002. The tumor was completely removed at Childrens Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. Afterwards Bethany suffered from hydrocephalus and a ventriculostomy was performed which allowed her to avoid a lifetime shunt. Six weeks of brain and spinal radiation were completed. Over a year of chemo was needed and she received Vincristine, Cisplatin and CCNU. Beth finished chemotherapy in early February of 2004. This website is to keep friends and family updated as to Beth's condition and also to inform parents of newly diagnosed children. If your a parent of a child with medulloblastoma, you may want to join a helpful (free) online support group made up of parents of children with the disease. To sign up browse to http://listserv.acor.org/archives/medullo-pnet.html (choose the third option to join the list).

1-24-10 - Wow......life has become so normal that cancer seems only to have been a foggy nightmare from the past. Beth is doing FANTASTIC! Lots has happened since the last post which was so very long ago.....my apologies. Beth is currently a junior in high school. Her grades are great. Beth really keeps up with the homework to make sure she gets every point possible because she has some difficulty with test taking. She is an A and B student. Beth now has her drivers license.....holy cow! No car of her very own quite yet though.......probably in the spring. Beth is volunteering in the special needs class in a local elementary school - she thinks she may want to pursue it as a career. She had her most recent MRI scan in early December and everything looked great!

May 12,2010- Beth is doing great. She bought Grandma's PT Cruiser for a very reasonable price :) and has been driving to and from school every day, to her tutoring and to work. Luckily we live in a pretty rural area so driving not too stressful.
She drives locally and isnt ready for fast paced driving like the freeway. She did OK on her ACT tests, so plans on attending a smaller university about a hour from home and hopefully she can live on campus- we think it would be good for
her socially since she is pretty shy. She is excited to attend college and likes having goals. The Univeristy is known for teaching degrees and at the moment she thinks she wants to be a special education teacher. We were very proud to find out she is getting a high school award on Friday- she is such a hard worker. It is quite an accomplishment- each teacher/subject gives one award for the year which means she stood out over about 300 students. She was even on the honor roll this term. She is currently taking growth hormone, thyroid, nortryptiline and estrogen daily. All the side effects of living through radiation treatments but thats ok, we will take it!