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 3-29-06
Hello everyone,
Valerie is doing great. It is hard to believe she is sick. She has 5 more radiation treatments left to go. April 4th will be her last one. She had her last treatment on her spine on Monday. Now they are treating the brain only. After April 4th we have to wait 4 weeks to do a repeat MRI to see if the radiation killed any of the cancer. So we have 4 weeks for prayer treatments :-). So give it all you got. We are down to 1mg a day on her steroid. We have decreased it with no problems this time. The next step will be to get her off the water pill. That is for brain swelling. So if we take her off that and she still does not get headaches that will be great!!
I am working on trying to get thank you notes to everyone. If I miss you, I am sorry. I want everyone to know that I am so thankful for everyone's generosity. Whether it be your time, prayers or donation.
Sincerely,
Bernice
Update 3-20-06
Hello everyone,
Sorry I have not updated in awhile. Last week has been great for Valerie. She feels great and has more energy. For weeks she has had tingling in her feet all the time; you know like when your foot falls asleep. That is gone now. I asked the Dr. if that might mean that the tumor has got smaller by the radiation and he said yes, it sounds like it. :-) So we are trying to take her off the steroids again. Remember the last time we tried she started to have bladder problems and weakness in the legs, due to swelling from the tumors. We took the dose down by 1mg a day for the last 3 days and then we are taking it down another 1mg tomorrow. She really wants to get off of it because it has caused her to gain some weight. So far so good. She has not had any more problems. We are half way done with the radiation. She gets weekly blood work done to keep an eye on her blood cell counts. She has had some drops in the blood cell counts. Each week it drops a little more, however they are still in the normal range.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers.
Bernice
3-11-06 Update
Hello everyone. I just want to say thank you to everyone that helped and came to the breakfast. It was very heart warming to see so many people who care for me and Valerie. I also want to say thank you to the people that bought a ticket and were not able to come. Sorry we missed you. If I missed coming by your table, I am sorry. I tried to get around to everyone. However the turn around was fast, it seemed like I saw new faces as they were leaving. Well I hope everyone enjoyed their breakfast. I say every one should visit Applebee's more often. It was so nice of them to give us a nice place to have breakfast.
I also wanted to thank Thomas Stone High School and all of the swimmers that busted their butts on the Swim a Thon. I am sorry we were not able to stop in on the one at Lacky High. Thank you to every one that placed a pledge for a swimmer. It continues to amaze me, how people come together for one another. So thank you to everyone helping us, praying for us.
For an update on Valerie, well she is doing very good. She feels great and has had lots of energy. She even did some swimming when we stoped in for the Swim a Thon. Well that is really all I can think of right now. No news is good news, RIght.
Sincerely,
Bernice
Valerie spotted on a Zamboni!
Last nights Washington Capitals hockey game was a huge success. Not only did the Caps defeat the Penguins, 6 to 3, but Valerie got to ride the Zamboni ice resurfacer machine! You may have caught a glimpse of her on tv if you watched the game. While Valerie was an in-patient at Children’s Hospital, the Washington Capitals visited the hospital and Valerie was given tickets to last nights game by Olie Kolzig. Valerie and her family had a great time and Valerie made friends with a bird that wouldn’t leave the ice she named “Paco”. Olie made this a very special night for Valerie and her family. Thanks Olie!
Update 3-8-06
Hello everyone, sorry I have not updated in a while. There was not much change until recently. Valerie has had 10 radiation treatments and has done well with them. Some days are long and some are quick. A few times a week they do films to check her alignment. Her leg weakness has gone away and she is walking with her feet closer again. Before, she was walking in a wide stance for balance. The bladder problems have got better also. I am not sure if it is the radiation doing some good or the higher dose of steroids. I am just glad to see her be more active. She had her sweet 16 birthday party this past Saturday. Every thing went well with that. She looked great and felt great. It was like she pulled energy from everyone in the room and she danced all night. She was breath taking. A few days later she came to me after taking a shower and showed me that she was now losing her hair. :-( Only after 10 treatments. I hope the cancer is as sensitive to the radiation as her body is. Well she was upset, we talked about it and she decided she did not want to watch more and more hair fall out as the days passed. So today we went shopping for hats and wig's and other fun stuff. We had a pizza and hair shaving party at her best friends house. We gave her different cut's and styles as we took pictures and then shaved it all. She is happy that she shaved it but she is upset that her hair is gone. She said she just could not watch her hair fall out a little at a time. But she will get use to it.
Well that is all I have for now, thank you all for your support.
Bernice
