My son Shane (15) was diagnosed with a brain tumour on the 30th May 2012. We had been back and forth to the doctors for 6 month because Shane was having headaches. Nothing was done at the doctors and he gradually started to get more symptoms – he lost weight, looked very pale, had dark circles around his eyes, slept all the time, hardly ate anything. I tried the doctors one last time; no joy so we went straight to Kingsmill hospital A & E. They tested Shane for everything they could and then they sent him for an MRI scan. That’s when we got the news it was a tumour.
We were told it was a tumour and that we would be transferred to Nottingham’s QMC the following day.
At QMC we were told that he would need another MRI scan and when the results came back, from that, we were told that whatever the tumour was, it was aggressive. It was like our whole world had been turned upside down. I cant even explain how we felt because no words can describe it. The next step was to do a biopsy – Shane was in theatre for 3 hours and that was the scariest 3 hours of our lives. When Shane recovered we went home and had to return the following week for the results – this became the most scariest week of our lives.
We went back to QMC for the results and we were told his tumour is a rare cancer called Germinoma and can be treated by radiotherapy. He has diabetes insipudus from the tumour and it’s affected his growth too. He’s on quite a few tablets at the minute and he will need more when treatment has finished.
We have 9 days left of radiotherapy and then an 8 week wait to see if the tumour as gone. He has been so brave through all of this and he is such an inspiration. The only side effect he’s had from radiotherapy at the moment is hair loss which was heartbreaking. This has been such a rollercoaster of emotions and I still cant explain how I feel. It’s like life stops and all that matters is that Shane gets better…but, he’s happy and still smiling after everything he has been through and is still going through.
Written by Shane’s Mum Clare on 2/8/2012