Valerie Lopez-Robinson: September 2006

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

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

9-20-06 Update

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have not updated in a few weeks. Things are not much different. She has a few good days and then a few bad days and it goes back and forth. We have not been able to pin point any certain cause that makes her get sick. But when she does have her sick days, she can not keep anything down and she pretty much sleeps all day. That will last about 2 days and then she will feel good for about 2 days.

Her appetite is gone down. When she is not sick she eats but small amounts and not as many times a day, like she was last month. She has got addicted to Starbucks . Mother like daughter :-)

She does not seem to be as depressed as she was. She excepts people coming to visit now, when she is feeling ok that is. With her being sick so often it is hard to make plans to go places or have people set up to visit. It is like one minute she is fine and then the next she does not feel good and then it lasts for a couple days.

She is still able to use a spoon on her own. However she can not pick up her pills or any small candy. So we have to feed her that. She uses her home oxygen from time to time and we use the morphine more now.

There is not much else to say right now. I will update as changes occur. So if time passes without an update that means she is not getting worse.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers,
Bernice