So, my 7 year old baby sister just beat beat Brain Cancer...

Without really any treatment... and no one knows how.


I know, it's been a while. But I don't think anyone around here knows about my sisters medical history. Don't think many people on the internet do. Hard to open up to anonymous strangers, but at one point in my life RZ was really important to me. So here's me opening up.

My sister was born without functioning kidneys, went four years without them. After several false positives, disappointments, thousand rounds of dialysis, in mid 2010 she got an anonymous kidney donation. Unfortunately, it did not work out, as there was major rejection issues; but from then on she was off dialysis and practically living somewhat of a normal life.

On February 17th, 2013, in the middle of the All-Star game she had her first grand mal/tonic-clonic seizure which lasted for about 3 hours. She woke up the next morning as if nothing happened. The doctors assumed that there was a problem with her kidney and probably her low electrolytes - issues she has been dealing with since the transplant.

She was admitted into the hospital she practically grew up in where the doctors ran several tests. Eventually, they found 'anomalies' in her MRI results; having trouble figuring out if they caused the seizures or were results of the seizure. Later on, they found a 'virus' in her spinal fluid which at the time seemed like the reasonable primary cause, so they attempted to treat it; but it was more of a diversion from the real problem.

March 10th, 2013, she had her second grand mal/tonic-clonic seizure. Her brain began to heavily bleed so they rushed her to surgery immediately. They opened her up, found cancer everywhere. Stopped the bleeding, biopsy'd the 'anomaly', closed her up, diagnosed her with a rare form of PTLD (Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder), closed her up and said she had at most two weeks to live as she fell into a coma.

March 17th, 2013, after some rounds of chemotherapy against doctors advice, she woke up. It was astonishing, dare I say... A miracle? At this point, no one knew what the hell was going on. Doctors were STUNNED - they couldn't believe it. My family and friends couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.

When she woke up, it was brief. Quiet, but wow it was so powerful. She couldn't speak, she couldn't tell what was going on, she couldn't remember anything, see anything, or feel anything. But she was... awake. Moving around as much as possible with hundreds of wires stuck in, out and on her.

So since then, in the span of four months, my 7 year old sister has woken up from a coma, completely regained her memory (which we expected her NEVER to get back), regained her ability to see, regained her ability to speak, to smile, to laugh, to slap me across the face when I can't get her favorite Selena Gomez song to play on the hospitals shitty ass free wifi. Basically survived the impossible.

Did I mention the barely any treatment part? Not to long after her miracle wake up, her kidney failed. Expected though. The chemotherapy treatment was put on hold, despite only a handful of sessions, and was put on dialysis since.

As of Friday morning, June 21st, 2013, when me and my family were preparing for her 6 months of Chemotherapy, we were told that my sister CURED of BRAIN PTLD CANCER after MRIs concluded no traces of cancer whatsoever, and her spinal fluids are clean of any sort of virus. How? Once again, no one knows. No one really cares. She just happened to beat one of the rarest and most incurable forms of cancer, at the age of 7. And we're all fucking ecstatic!

This Friday she will be discharged and moved to a private rehab facility where she'll spend time trying to regain major fundamental functions (standing, walking, hand function, short/long term memory etc) and continue her dialysis. She escaped the hands of death, but unfortunately has been left with some brain damage and will have to play 'find the right kidney' game again. If it's permanent or not, we don't know. But then again, we thought she would never wake up, let alone say my name ever again.


So the last four months or so as you can read, have been INTENSE. I don't know what happened, I can't possibly explain it. I can just tell you, it's life changing. Watching someone you love more than anything in the world, to lying in a coma on her death bed to highfiving you in the span of one week... It's indescribable.



tl;dr? My sister slapped death across the face. Come at me bro. :thumbup:

I like listening to news like this, it makes me feel like hope shouldn't ever be lost.
It must feel amazing knowing that she does not have to deal with cancer anymore.
I wish you guys good luck on finding her a new kidney, hopefully she gets one that doesn't reject her this time. Good luck with everything :D:

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...-here-meme.png

On a more serious note...

Amazing, Happy for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iamgurb

I like listening to news like this, it makes me feel like hope shouldn't ever be lost.
It must feel amazing knowing that she does not have to deal with cancer anymore.
I wish you guys good luck on finding her a new kidney, hopefully she gets one that doesn't reject her this time. Good luck with everything :D:

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I agree wholeheartedly with that.
Best of luck.

Damn, thats fucking amazing! Modern day medical miracle. I wonder why the chemo was so effective on her.

I wish you and your family the best of luck in the future, hug your sister plenty.

Haha, your sister is amazing. I'm glad on your behalf. Nice way to cheer me up so early haha! :)

Woaw mate. Glad that this world has amazing fighters like your sister! I'm actually getting so glad to see that there are people out there that are soo strong and can manage to defeat death. Good luck with everything and I'll hope everything will be fine!

One of the most amazing stories I have ever heard! I wish your family the best of luck.

That, sir, is truly astonishing. A miracle, who knows! But what is evident is your little sister is a hard ass and she's got a fighting will to live, hope she lives a happy, long and normal life and you guys can have plenty of good times!

Incredible indeed! That's one tough ass girl!
:)

sorry for this but

FUCK YEAH!!!!!


Really happy for you, really :D

Well done to your sister :)! I am so happy that she got through this !!!

the god be with you !

Brilliant news, your sister is a true fighter, it's brilliant to hear it's gone. I know what grand mal seizures are like as I've seen before and they are real scary too.

Great news for your family.

Dang.
Nice to hear that she's recovering after all the tragedies she's had to go through. Bless her, because a 7 year old girl should never have to taste death as close as she did.
I can somewhat relate, my aunt is a survivor of brain cancer, and we're very close.
Good luck to your family and your sister while she's in rehab.
But don't worry, Death wouldn't dare to go near such a badass ;D.

Congratulations to her! :)