Welcome to the journal of love and hope for Valerie Lopez-Robinson. This website chronicles Valerie's journey in healing.
Valerie was diagnosed with Grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme. Her Mom, Bernice, explains how this diagnosis was reached below:
Valerie was having headaches that started as one a day. We thought they were stress induced or part of her shoulder problem that she was getting therapy for.
The headaches started to get worse and was thought by her pediatrician to be sinus's and she was started on a sinus medication. She advised to try that for
one week and if that did not work we would get a CT done. Fri. 01-27-06 was the end of the week and her headaches were not being prevented by the sinus medication,
in fact, they were getting worse. They were lasting all day with no relief. We tried to get through the weekend to go back to her Dr. However she started vomiting
and having pain in her neck. It then sounded like meningitis, so I took her to Childrens Hospital on Sun. 01-29-06. When we got to the ER she was thought to have
migraines by the triage nurse and we waited for 2 1/2 hours in the waiting room. Then she got a CT done in the ER and it was clear, so they did a spinal tap that
revealed that she had too much spinal fluid in her head that was causing her headaches. They said sometimes this happens, so they removed the extra fluid and thought
this would take her headaches away and she would be fine. When her headaches did not go away they admitted her to the neuro floor of Childrens. For the next few days
they were running all kinds of tests, trying to find out what was the cause of the spinal fluid building up. Every day they were ruling out all kinds of stuff and as
time went by we were facing more and more serious problems. Her MRI's showed some abnormal areas in the brain and spine, she under went a biopsy of one of the spots
in the lower spine on Fri. 02-03-06. This told us right away it was cancer, however they could not tell us what type of cancer it was. They said it would take a few
days for the final diagnosis. During this time Valerie was given pain medication and a drainage tube for the spinal fluid along with some other medications for infection,
diuretic (water pill) and steroids for inflammation. We got her final diagnosis on 02-07-06 The drainage tube was taken out and she was discharged from the hospital on 02-08-06
Valerie is feeling much better now, she does not have any headache's. She has been going back to school. She will start chemo and radiation next week and then will be
home schooled. Her spirits are very high and she said she is going to fight this!! So let us all pray she win's her battle.
Thank you to everyone for the love and support and most of all their prayers.
Bernice
Update 10-19-06
Hello,
Wednesday the 18th Valerie went down hill around 6pm. She started to breath very fast. I checked her lung sounds and she had quite a bit of fluid in her lungs. She was very sleepy but did respond and follow commands. She was no longer able to swallow any of the meds that were still in pill form. We did not get much chance to see how the thick it worked. She is just unable to swallow much at all. I called hospice and we got a medication called transderm scop. This helps with what they call "terminal congestion", what Valerie has. I was not sure if she was going to make it through the night. She did and then all day Thursday she had visitors and perked up quite a bit and talked to everyone. She was still having the congestion, swallowing problems, and rapid breathing. After her last visitor left she started to go down hill again. We increased her morphine and lorazepam to make her comfortable. Her oxygen levels are very low and falling. She is no longer responding. Her breathing is starting to slow down. So this is the last update. Thanks for you concern.
Arrangements will be posted,
Love,
Bernice
1 Comments:
Dear Bernice,
I just got the news today! It's Tuesday eve.I'm so sorry for your loss. I wish I would have known earlier I would have made it to her funeral. Again sorry for your loss Bernice. I will call you tomorrow.
Love,
Rhonda & Daniel
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