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#CamyStrong! Join me in my battle against brain cancer!

Camryn, known to most as Cam or Camy, started her battle against brain cancer in June 2022. Camy had been having headaches on and off for about 6 months, but on paper she was the most “perfect” little girl. We had so many unanswered questions as to why her headaches were happening. One Sunday morning, I decided to see if the eye doctor had any open appointments, and they did at 3:30 that afternoon. We spent the morning by at the pool, and left dad with her 3 siblings and went off to the doctors office. Little did we know, but that would be our life changing moment. The eye doctor told me that Camy had pressure on her optic nerve, but it was beyond her scope of expertise and we were to call another specialist in the morning. As we were walking through the parking lot, Camy started vomiting. I called my husband, Camy’s dad, and told him to bring me clothes for both of us and a couple necessities because I was taking Camy to Goreyb, and I knew we weren’t going home that night. Her MRI showed a giant mass on the left side of her brain that was bigger than a baseball. Unsure of what was next, we were admitted to the PICU for a week long hospital stay. Camy went in for tumor resection that Wednesday, which was planned to be a 2 hour long surgery. 6 hours later, 5 pints of blood, 65% resection and a whole section of her skull missing, we still didn’t have answers as her tumor was like nothing they had ever seen before. At this moment is when we met Camy’s care team, our Valerie Center family. We were blessed with the most amazing doctors, nurses and child life specialists. We found out in August 2022, that Camy had a tumor called an Anaplastic Pleomorphic Xanthroastrocytoma, or an APXA. We then had embolization of the blood supply to the tumor and total resection in early October. Although we thought that would be our last hospital stay for a while, two weeks later Camy was rushed into emergency surgery due to hydrocephalus. This hospital stay ended up being over a month long, with 3 EVD surgeries, treatment for MRSA, and ultimately a shunt to control her CSF levels. Unfortunately, due to this set back, Camy was disqualified from the clinical trial she was supposed to start. Luckily, Camy’s oncologist, Dr. Fritz, pushed to get Camy on the same treatment plan. We started proton therapy in December 2022, and finished early February 2023. We began our long chemo journey in March 2023, and are still on that journey as it is 24 cycles minimum, with each cycle being a month long. We just went for our 8th, and hopefully last, brain surgery two weeks ago to have Camy’s skull reconstructed. Despite all of these challenges in her 8 years, she continues to amaze us every day! She is truly our hero, and stronger than I could ever be. Cancer will only be a chapter in our lives and not the whole story, but the Valerie/Goreyb family we have gained throughout our journey will live with us forever. #camystrong - Camy’s Mom