Ultimate yr, Gracelyn Stiffler, then 2, started complaining of complications and would level to the similar spot in the back of her ear because the supply of the ache. In the beginning, mother Catherine Owens felt perplexed.“She saved telling me her head hurts,” Owens, 29, of West Monroe, Louisiana, tells TODAY.com. “Then she began regressing. She used to be potty skilled from 18 months outdated, and so when she began having injuries, I used to be like, OK, this isn’t standard.”One evening, Gracelyn threw up, which made Owens fear that her daughter had a concussion. So, she took Gracelyn to the emergency room. They dominated out a concussion, however her signs worsened. After two visits to the pediatrician and any other go back and forth to the emergency room, Owens begged the team of workers for a CT scan of Gracelyn’s head. It published that the infant had a mass in her mind. “I knew it used to be one thing critical,” Owens says. “However I didn’t comprehend it used to be a mind tumor.” 
When 2-year-old Gracelyn began complaining of complications, regressed in her potty coaching and walked along with her head tilted, mother Catherine Owens felt anxious. After advocating for her daughter, they in spite of everything were given the correct prognosis.Courtesy Catherine OwensWorrisome signs that went disregarded After Gracelyn began having complications and injuries in the summertime of 2023, Owens spotted that she used to be appearing surprisingly. She started strolling along with her head tilted, and it gave the impression as though she used to be off-balance.“She may just nonetheless stroll, however she used to be strolling along with her head titled,” Owens says. “I used to be like, ‘Perhaps it’s only a level she’s going thru.’ I don’t know. … It simply didn’t really feel proper.” Then, after a few month of her bizarre signs, one evening in September, Gracelyn started vomiting one evening and could not prevent. Previous, she had instructed her mother that she hit her head. Nervous a few concussion, Owens took her to the emergency room.“There used to be no bump. There used to be no indication that she hit her head, no purple mark or anything else,” she says. “When she began throwing up, a couple of hours later, I used to be like, ‘Oh my goodness perhaps she does have a concussion.’” Docs examined her for a number of diseases, and she or he examined sure for strep throat. “They wrote her off,” Owens says. “That they had instructed me that strep throat used to be what it used to be, and that she used to be so drained, so exhausted that she bodily couldn’t dangle her head up.” This struck Owens as abnormal, however she relied on the docs and gave her daughter the drugs as directed. By way of October, Gracelyn’s signs hadn’t progressed.“She’s pronouncing her head hurts, and she or he used to be throwing up on and off,” Owens says. “However it used to be transparent mucous.” This time, they visited the pediatrician, who concept possibly Gracelyn used to be experiencing seasonal allergic reactions. “That made sense,” Owens says. “However I used to be extra keen on her head. I used to be like, ‘She helps to keep pronouncing her head hurts, and it’s at all times in the similar spot and I simply don’t perceive.’” The pediatrician had an reason behind this.“She used to be like, ‘Neatly, you at all times have migraines, so perhaps she’s copying you,’” Owens recollects. “I didn’t truly like that solution as a result of I felt like she used to be writing her off.”Annoyed, Owens made any other appointment for a couple of weeks later and taken her husband to “again (her) up.” Once more, the physician defined away Gracelyn’s signs or even instructed she go back to dressed in diapers, chalking up her regression to transferring from a crib to a baby mattress and the delivery of her brother, then 8 months outdated. The pediatrician additionally gave Gracelyn a prescription for bodily treatment, occupational treatment and speech treatment. However ahead of they might agenda the ones appointments, Gracelyn as soon as once more began throwing up and could not prevent.
When coming off ache drugs, Gracelyn by accident scratched her eye. She cannot see and her eye does not moisturize correctly now. Docs are undecided if this will likely affect her long-term, however dressed in a patch is helping her eye leisure.Courtesy Catherine OwensThe identical day, Owens had an appointment with the specialist who handled her migraines, so she requested the nurse to take a look at Gracelyn as a result of she used to be so involved via her daughter’s signs. “She used to be the primary individual that in fact heard me as a mom,” she says. “She’s like, ‘Yeah, one thing’s without a doubt improper along with her. I don’t know what, but when I had been you, I might deliver her to the ER and insist they do a CT scan.’”After they arrived on the emergency room, even though, team of workers insisted that the woman had “one thing viral,” Owens recollects. “I used to be like, ‘I appreciate you as a health care provider, however I want you to appreciate my motherly intuition as a result of one thing now not proper along with her.”Viral checking out got here again unfavorable, so the docs in spite of everything ordered a CT scan to ease Owen’s fears. It discovered that Gracelyn had plenty on her mind, however extra scans had been wanted to determine precisely what they had been. Gracelyn used to be rushed in an ambulance to a youngsters’s clinic two hours away. An MRI on the youngsters’s clinic published she had a mind tumor and wanted surgical treatment inside a couple of days.Gracelyn had a Grade 2 ependymoma, which begins in ependymal cells within the central anxious device, consistent with the Nationwide Most cancers Institute. Whilst Grade 1 and a couple of ependymomas aren’t thought to be cancerous, her tumor used to be “as shut as it may be to cancerous,” Dr. Nir Shimony, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Semmes Murphey in Memphis and one among Gracelyn’s docs, tells TODAY.com. After a nine-hour surgical treatment, docs got rid of as a lot of the tumor as they might. “It used to be intense,” Owens says. “They had been assured that that they had gotten (the tumor) all out.” Nonetheless, the docs despatched Gracelyn’s case to St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Health facility, they usually sooner or later transferred Gracelyn there. Imaging at St. Jude published that probably the most tumor used to be nonetheless nestled in Gracelyn’s mind, and docs sought after to habits any other surgical treatment to take extra of it out. Docs concept Gracelyn would reply higher to radiation if she had as a lot of the tumor out as imaginable. “It used to be only one surprise after the following as a result of we weren’t anticipating any other surgical treatment,” Owens says. Gracelyn skilled a couple of headaches. A scratch and imaginable nerve harm to 1 eye resulted in lack of imaginative and prescient, and an harm to a nerve in her proper ear way she is deaf in that ear. It’s unclear whether or not the imaginative and prescient and listening to loss shall be everlasting, Owens says.In December 2023, Gracelyn began radiation and stayed at St. Jude till February 2024 for remedy. Gracelyn underwent greater than two dozen rounds of radiation. “Each day she would have PT, OT, speech, then she would have her remedy and from time to time she’d have to visit the attention sanatorium simply to get issues checked up,” Owens says. “We had been repeatedly transferring.” Ependymoma The tumor Gracelyn has, an ependymoma, is person who regularly affects youngsters. “It’s a moderately, sadly, not unusual tumor on this age team of infancy throughout the age of three,” Shimony explains.
Whilst Gracelyn underwent a hit remedy, grade 2 ependymomas are much more likely to come back again. Docs are carefully observing her as a precaution. Courtesy Catherine OwensGracelyn has a grade 2 ependymoma, which is “moderately competitive,” and they are able to expand within the backbone, the supratentorial space of the mind, the place the cerebrum is, or the posterior fossa space, a place close to the cerebellum and the mind stem, Shimony says. Gracelyn’s tumor grew within the posterior fossa space.In line with the Nationwide Most cancers Institute, signs of early life posterior fossa ependymomas come with: Neck ache Issues walkingBalance troubles FatigueVomiting Performing simply annoyedA gaze that appears best downward Not on time construction An enlarged headHeadaches from time to time can point out a mind tumor. However Shimony urges warning in assuming {that a} kid’s headache way they have got a mind tumor.“Children may have complications for lots of causes,” he says. “Must we do a head scan for each child with a headache? That’s bad. That’s numerous head scans.” Nonetheless, Shimony urges oldsters to take their youngsters to their pediatrician if they have got complications to take a look at to search out the underlying purpose. “If the headache has no different causes or there are different indicators or signs — and particularly if the complications are one thing this is ongoing — it’s highest to have a scan of the pinnacle, ideally an MRI, to rule out unhealthy issues,” he says. Remedy for ependymoma come with conventional most cancers remedies, akin to surgical treatment and radiation. “It’s nonetheless what we name a surgeon’s illness, because of this that surgical treatment comes first,” he says. “Surgical procedure will give the most suitable option for higher diagnosis.” Radiation typically follows surgical treatment, together with follow-up appointments and scans to verify the tumor has now not returned or grown.“If there’s a residual tumor after the whole thing that has been accomplished, then it’s being adopted moderately, and if this residual tumor is appearing indicators that it’s in need of to conform or develop, from time to time we’ll opt for any other surgical treatment or any other remedy modality,” Shimony says. Early prognosis stays key in a kid’s diagnosis, and Shimony applauds Owen and different oldsters who suggest for his or her kid in receiving a right kind prognosis.“No oldsters want to know that their child has a mind tumor,” he says. “The only factor that has been proven throughout any form of tumor (for just right diagnosis) is early prognosis. So, if the fogeys have a priority, in the event that they see one thing they don’t like, they simply want to be sure their child is being looked after.”‘All the time accept as true with your mother intestine’Gracelyn returned house in February 2024, after 4 months within the clinic. She right away performed along with her toys.“She used to be ecstatic. She went directly to her playroom, and they didn’t pass to mattress that evening,” Owens says. “We didn’t even care as a result of we had been in order that glad to look her smile.” Now 3, Gracelyn acts like a “little mama,” taking price of her buddies in day care when she attends. She loves knock-knock jokes and “cackles” on the punchline.“She cackles at the whole thing,” Owens says. “She is goofy.” 
Catherine Owens knew her daughter used to be in poor health and advocated for her to get a prognosis. That resulted in Gracelyn’s a hit remedy for an ependymoma. Courtesy Catherine OwensA little greater than a month in the past, Owens felt a troublesome lump in Gracelyn’s head when washing her hair. Owens concept a screw from one among her surgical procedures used to be popping out.“It used to be completely spherical and it’s onerous. It’s now not like a cyst, the place it is more or less squishy,” Owens says. Owens took Gracelyn to the pediatrician, who agreed it gave the look of a screw and really helpful that the docs at St. Jude repair it. In an instant, docs knew the screw being unfastened may well be bad for the woman. “The drive of striking her hat on or striking a headscarf on” may have led to the screw to rupture the outside on Gracelyn’s head, Owens explains. “If it ruptures, she’s in danger for an infection.” Once more, Gracelyn had to keep at St. Jude’s and go through a surgical treatment. She has recovered neatly. “She’s completely high-quality. You wouldn’t even comprehend it,” Owens says. “The following day, she used to be up adorning cookies.” For now, Gracelyn does not want further remedy, best common check-ups.Owens shared her tale on TikTok to inspire oldsters to “at all times accept as true with your mother intestine.” “I knew one thing used to be severely improper with Gracelyn, my mother intestine,” she says. “I need everybody to grasp I’m on their aspect and I’m rooting for them.”
