Prayers for our sweet Alanna

Sweet Alanna has gone through a whirlwind of events this past week.  Your prayers and fasting are requested as we have faith in Jesus Christ that her health may be improved and that she may heal from her afflictions.  She needs her community whom she loves dearly.  I know many people have touched her and care about her.  She loves her family, friends, leaders, teachers and almost any stranger she ever comes in contact with.  She has always talked to everyone she sees and loves the attention that each person gives her.  Please pray and think of her at this time, especially on Friday as she goes through a 6-7 hour surgery to remove her brain tumor.   

For those of you who would like to be specific in your prayers:  Here is the information we have up to this point:

Alanna has a brain tumor at the base of her skull it goes deep, almost to her brain stem. It covers her cerebellum and perhaps some places where there is spinal fluid. At it's biggest it is 4cm in diameter, the size of a tangerine.  The cerebellum is the part of the brain that affects coordination and balance.  The surgeon thinks she has had this tumor for years and it recently grew big enough to affect her.  She at this point has no balance and will fall if she trys to stand or walk.  She was experiencing massive headaches that induced vomitting.  Just before we took her to the ER on Saturday March 17 she had experienced a severe headache that had lasted 12 hours.  She was helicoptered to UCLA Mattel Children's hospital at midnight.

The surgery will be Friday. To give the steroids more time to reduce swelling in her brain (which has been successful so far) and so the doctor can schedule his whole A team to be present. The surgery will take 6-7 hours. He will schedule it around 9 or 9:30am.

He will take out as much of the tumor as he possibly can. If he gets to close to something or it doesn't come easily he won't force it. That's when future surgeries or radiation comes into play.

She gets one incision on the back of her head down to her spine. Very little hair will be trimmed. He removes a small circular piece of the skull and part of the C1 vertebrae to get into the brain.

The day after surgery there will be an MRI to see if all of the tumor is removed. If it is not he may do another surgery soon after.

She will probably need a blood transfusion. Because she is little and tumors are a bloody mess.

Risks are infections, spinal fluid may leak, may not get the whole tumor, and cerebellum mutism (happens only in children-they become emotionally libel, difficulty with speech, extra emotional and it usually goes away by itself over time). Risk of anything major is less than 5%.

After they remove the tumor they will take some tissue to analyze it. The analysis will take one week. They will find out what kind of tumor it is. That's when they find out if it is cancerous or not.

She may need speech therapy and rehab afterwards. He thinks she probably will need rehab since she is having so much difficulty balancing and walking.

As you can imagine at this point she is emotionally distraught, does not understand what is happening, and screams at all of the hospital staff that enters the room.  She is frustrated with the many things she can not do that were so easy for her to do not so long ago.  She is most at herself when she is playing with her toys.  They are a welcome distraction from what is going on and that is when I see her silly sweet self still shining.  I'm thankful to be at a hospital that is providing toys and grateful for the toys that many of her friends have sent her.  She is also cheerful when she watches the videos her teacher sends her.  She likes seeing people whom she knows and loves.

Thank you for your support and love,
Emilee & Steve

Here are some pictures if you'd like it to seem even more real:

March 17

 March 18 Midnight

 March 20

 March 20