Helen Garner's page

Welcome to Helen Michelle Garner's Web Page. It has been provided to tell people about our little girl and her journey with cancer.

December 17, 2003 - December 10, 2004

Helen and her twin brother Robert were born on December 17, 2003. All seemed well with our beautiful babies until Saturday, March 27, 2004. Helen was nursing and at 11 a.m. she stopped and I realized her left eye and foot were twitching and her arm was limp. We ended up in the Joplin emergency room and she was given phenobarbital to stop the seizure. A CT scan was done and it showed a buildup of fluid in her brain. Helen and I were flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. They kept us until Tuesday night and sent us home with follow-up visits and a diagnosis of communicating hydrocephalus. Helen’s team of doctors didn’t think the pressure was enough to have a shunt put in but would keep checking. On May 5 the pressure was more severe and surgery was scheduled for May 13. Within a couple of days Helen started becoming worse - the vomiting increased, she was more irritable. We left for Kansas City on May 12 and life hasn’t been the same since. Her surgery went well on the 13th but her spinal fluid was tested and tumor cells were found. On the 14th Helen had an MRI which showed a tumor in her right cerebellum. On the 19th Helen underwent her first of many spinal taps and a bone marrow aspiration to check and see if were dealing with leukemia or something else. On the 21st we were told that Helen had ATRT (atypical teratoid rhapdoid tumor) and we were given less than a 10% chance of survival and that they would understand if we wanted to just go home and have hospice care. We were not giving up that easily and had in fact already make arrangements to see a neurosurgeon in Memphis.

We left for Memphis on May 24, met with the doctor on the 25th and Helen was admitted that afternoon to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis and scheduled for surgery. Helen’s tumor and its two offspring were removed on May 28. On June 2 she officially became a patient at St. Jude Children’s Hospital and we will forever be grateful to the staff there for the time that we had with our little angel. The prognosis was still slim but they were willing to try if we wanted to take a chance. Helen’s was admitted to LeBonheur on June 4 for a shunt replacement and then was an inpatient for the first time at St. Jude the following week. The month of June was a tough one. Helen was feeling the effects of her 3 surgeries so close together and the pressure of the tumor cells which were coating her brain and spinal cord and she just didn’t feel good. But on Monday June 28 as we were sitting in her hospital room (she had been admitted the week before for fever) she laughed at something as she was sitting in my lap. It was the first time I had heard her sweet little laugh in a month and it surprised me at first. From there she just kept getting better and better and we all enjoyed some happy times with our little princess.

In August we had good news - no new tumors and a reduction of the cells in her brain and spinal cord. So we started on a new 10 week round of treatments. But towards the end of October Helen started having bits of pain while she was sleeping and worry set in that the next MRI would not be good. On November 4 our fears were confirmed. But we were still willing to try. We had to wait for at least 3 weeks before they could enter Helen in another study and during that time Helen suffered more seizures. On December 2 after a CT scan before a new chemo treatment was to start we were told that it wouldn’t work - the disease was just too much. Helen and I rode by ambulance home on December 8 and we lost our precious girl just two days later.

Journal

Wednesday, February 3, 2016 8:36 PM CST

Dear baby girl,

I know I don't write much but I still miss you so very much. It snowed on your birthday and Robert liked the idea that you sent it to him. You didn't send much though and he had to go to school the next day. I told him you were just being like a sister and knowing how much he enjoyed it didn't want to send him too much. Can't believe you and Paige have been together for 11 years now. Just waiting on the rest of us.

I love you my precious girl.

Hospital Information:

Home:
13113 Marina Del Rey
Neosho, MO 64850
417-451-7751

Links:

E-mail Author: n-garner@att.net

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