HELP FIND A CURE
Bella's Story
Brain cancer kills 4 out of 5 people and kills more children than any other disease. But funds to support research will help change these awful statistics and Bella the Brave wants to help play a part in this.
Bella’s Story
We were an absolute mess by this point but things were about to get worse. After a very long, awful wait Dr Redmond, her neurosurgeon, came to see us. Bella had pulled through surgery but barely.
Despite our misgivings, on the 7th October 2016 Bella had surgery to have a central line put in so she could start chemotherapy. A central line is a catheter of sorts that was placed in the right side of Bella’s chest and went up into her neck and then down to the side of her heart. The central line is then used to administer chemotherapy, take blood and give IV fluids.
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We ended up declining radiation. We just couldn’t do it to Bella. Given that there was no other treatment that could be offered, we returned home to Gladstone in May 2017 after getting another clear scan.
The elation we felt when we returned home, however, was short lived. Bella’s next scan in early August showed the tumour had returned. We had been told all along by her oncology team that we had one chance at beating this and that if it came back the prospect of good outcome for Bella was greatly diminished. After the initial shock of the situation had worn off, we were quietly confident after discussions with her oncologist that the tumour could be removed relatively easily. How wrong we were…
Bella’s 6th surgery in September 2017 was aborted as her neurosurgeon thought it posed an unacceptable risk to her life if he continued. The tumour was still in there. It was then that we felt the weight of the situation shift against us. During an awful conversation with her oncology team we were told that they didn’t think that they could cure Bella. They told us they could offer radiation but this would just be to buy her time. Go home and make memories they said.
The hardest part of all of this was that Bella was happy and seemingly looked healthy. It seemed so unfair to put her through more treatment when she was doing so well. It was even harder to fathom that this could not be beaten.
So we made the decision to see Dr Charlie Teo in Sydney. Dr Teo saw the scans and was confident he could remove the tumour but warned us if we went ahead Bella might not make it through the surgery.
We agonised over this decision for a couple of weeks – time we didn’t really have because the tumour was growing very quickly. But ultimately we decided we needed to go ahead with the surgery and give Bella the best chance of being able to beat this beast again. On the 23rd October 2017 Bella underwent her 7th surgery under the hand of Dr Teo. It felt like an eternity. When the call came through on my phone, I was terrified about answering it. But it was fantastic news. Dr Teo had been able to remove the tumour and Bella had made it through surgery. I couldn’t wait to give her a cuddle. Bella bounced back from the surgery so well it was unbelievable. She was moved out of ICU the day after her surgery and was up and about, walking and talking.
Again though it was a situation of 2 steps forward followed by 1 step back as Bella became unresponsive the following day, 2 days after her surgery. She began seizing with her heart rate bouncing between 200 beats per minute down to 50. It took an hour to stabilise her. This was the second MET call we had endured and it was no less frightening. A CT scan showed increased pressure in her brain and so Bella was taken away for emergency surgery to put in a shunt, her 8th brain surgery in 13 months. And in true Bella style, she was again back to her usual self the next morning.
Since her operation with Dr Teo in October 2017, Bella has had clear scans. We count our blessings every day that she is with us. It is not without its challenges though as Bella has a number of long-term and permanent side effects from the cancer and the treatment she had. She has a visual impairment (she is blind to her right side in both eyes), right side weakness / hemiplegia and cognitive impairment. But we know we are luckier than most families and for that we are thankful.
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Aiming for bright future