A Preteen Journeys to Health After Tumor Surgery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOSyVcUyynk
An 18-inch tumor clung to Nicole Lobato's spinal cord, starting in her brain and extending nearly the full length of her back.

She was 9 when it was discovered. She'd initially been told scoliosis, a sideways curvature of the spine, was causing the agonizing pain that woke her in the middle of the night.

The first specialists she saw with her grandmother Debbie Lobato, who is also her legal guardian, were reluctant to offer any prognosis. They offered to do surgery but did not seem confident it would succeed.

That wasn't good enough. Debbie Lobato sought a second opinion at Cedars-Sinai.

Moise Danielpour, MD

Moise Danielpour, MD, director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Program, specializes in spinal tumors. Nicole's tumor was the largest he had ever seen or operated on — and as part of one of the largest neurosurgery programs in the United States, Danielpour has operated on hundreds of tumor patients.

"This was a tumor in a young, beautiful little girl," he said. "There are so many risks involved with it. I spoke to a lot of my colleagues and my entire team. I sat down for hours, looking at all the films, planning the surgery and saying, ‘How are we going to get this right so we can give this kid a long life?'"

The carefully plotted surgery lasted 14 hours. The tumor occupied most of Nicole's spinal cord, which the surgical team lifted to remove the tumor, then put back in place.

After the grueling hours waiting to learn how the surgery had gone, Debbie Lobato and Nicole's twin brother, Nathaniel, heard good news. Danielpour had a promising prognosis for his young patient.

"He told me she was going to prom. She was graduating. She was getting married. She was having babies — a lot better than the other prognosis," Debbie Lobato said. "We knew we had her."

Now 12, Nicole races her brother — and often wins. She especially loves practicing cartwheels, which she manages beautifully despite some lingering nerve damage and some trouble with her left arm.

"I land them sometimes, and I slip sometimes, and they're really fun," said the Big Bear girl.

She loves singing and dancing, and she's able to do them without the pain that plagued her before.

She's looking forward to starting middle school. She and her family have come a long way in three years: a journey that took them from fear to hope to back-to-school shopping, choir practices and all the normal end-of-summer rituals a typical 12-year-old experiences.

Danielpour is looking forward further to hearing news of her graduation, her college picks and her wedding.


Original Published Link A Preteen Journeys to Health After Tumor Surgery

#18-InchTumor, #Brain, #DebbieLobato, #Discovered, #Lobato'SSpinalCord, #Surgery #NeurologyandNeurosurgery, #Tumor

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Breast Cancer Survivor Uses Her Experience to Help Other Women

Image
On a typical day at  Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging at Green Spring Station , patients coming in for imaging tests such as  MRIs ,  ultrasounds  and  mammograms have a comforting advocate available in the waiting room. Kate Pisano is a patient liaison — there to meet the needs of the patients by providing resources and support. With Kate’s smile and cheerful attitude, it’s not obvious that recently she too was a patient sitting in the waiting room confronting her own major health challenges. Two years ago Kate was fighting breast cancer and facing it alone as a single working mother of two teenaged sons. Months after a painful divorce, Kate noticed a lump in her breast while getting undressed. “I was afraid of what the lump might mean, so I waited several weeks before finally making an appointment with my doctor,” she said. That appointment led to a mammogram followed by a  biopsy . In April of 2012, Kate’s greatest fear was confirmed: She had breast cancer. “The diagnosis was a complet
Read more

Having pancreatic cancer a suspicious tumor on your pancreas

Image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=QDwctWY-DOQ Joseph “Cook” Edens III doesn’t let pancreatic cancer get in the way of living a full life. Edens was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Unfortunately, a bout of pancreatitis returned, and in 2015, surgeon Christopher Wolfgang and his team performed a total pancreatectomy on Edens, removing his entire pancreas and spleen. The Arlington, Virginia, resident is now cancer-free and back to a busy lifestyle of work, sports and family time. About Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer Care Having pancreatic cancer — or a suspicious tumor on your pancreas — is a frightening diagnosis. Johns Hopkins experts, some of the most experienced pancreatic specialists in the country, are working to dispel fear and create hope in patients with pancreatic disease. Pancreatic cancer, tumors and cysts are being treated with dramatic success at Johns Hopkins. The first step when dealing w
Read more

Howard's Weight Loss Journey

Image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmgTU6L524 HOME››ABOUT LAHEY TEXT SIZE | SHARE | PRINT Howard's Story “I thank them for helping me get to where I’m at, and they keep telling me that it was all me doing the work. But, I know that if I wasn’t coming every two weeks to see them, I wouldn’t be this way.” They say timing is everything, and in April 2011, Howard Jardine was eager to change his life. Weighing in at 405 pounds, he decided it was finally time to join Lahey’s Medical Weight Loss program. Looking back, Howard says it was one of the best decisions he has ever made, as he found support from a team that encouraged and motivated him throughout his weight loss journey. At 405 pounds, Howard was the heaviest he had ever been, and the heaviest that he wanted to be. He was starting to feel the strain that the weight was causing on his relationship with his five-year-old daughter, and he didn’t want to miss out on her milestones. Howard’s mother was overweight and suffered a stroke a
Read more