Jaimie's Story: Part Two

“Jaimie has a mass on her brain and you need to get to the hospital right away.”  We were floored – I just remember sitting on the floor in hysterics with my poor Jaimie looking at me like…what the heck is going on.  Dan was a bit calmer than I was and worked with the office to get paperwork and a CD of her Cat Scan to take with us to the hospital.  Not sure how we did it, but we drove across the street to the hospital (luckily was only across the street) and Jaimie was immediately taken into the ER where there were Dr’s and nurses surrounding us.  Dan and I paced and cried – They told us they they could not treat us at this hospital and they had an ambulance coming to take Jaimie to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital where they could treat her.  It felt like forever before the ambulance came. I tried so hard to keep it together on the ride to Maria Fareri so as not to scare my Jaimie.  That was the most difficult role I ever had to play.  We finally arrived at Maria Fareri where we were rushed into the ER.  I could not even keep it together to be with my little girl – we were talking to ER personnel and our heads were spinning with our new news.  Jaimie was sent in for an MRI to confirm the diagnosis.

The next morning after a very sleepless night – Dr. Tobias came up to us and said – he could take her in for surgery this morning – he had everyone in place.  Dan and I looked at each other in complete fear and said yes.  I was terrified but Dan said it has to be done and better sooner than later.  An hour and half later Jaimie was wheeled into her 14 hour surgery to remove this tumor from her brain.  At 2:00 am the surgeon came up to the room and said he had successfully removed her tumor and they were closing her up and then she was going to go for an MRI to confirm that the tumor was removed 100% and after that she would be back to the room.  

A little while later my beautiful girl was wheeled down the hall to us with all sorts of tubes coming out of her – it was the scariest sight Dan and I had ever seen.  They brought her into the room and Dan completely lost it – I was just so happy to see her – she had a huge bandage on her head and was hooked up to all sorts of monitors.  The rest of the evening was spent with the nurses surrounding Jaimie and monitoring her every move.  They were slowly taking her off the ventilator to let her breathe on her own. Jaimie spent the next 5 days in the Pediatric ICU unit also known as the PICU. She was out of bed walking the day after surgery.   She was truly amazing in her recovery but had a little bit of depression as well.  After 5 days in the ICU we were finally moved to a regular room where Jaimie proceeded to become stronger and stronger – Her appetite was not very good and she lost quite a bit of weight.  Finally 12 days after arriving to Maria Fareri Hospital, Jaimie was discharged on January 15^th."

Now, this isn't the end of her story, but it's a start. There's much more to come. This is just a glance into their world - one that we should all now have a greater respect for. This family is heroic, no doubt about that. Jaimie is the toughest, most charismatic, glowing little girl we have ever met. This story hopefully will go on to educate you, provide you with new respect for life, and allow your heart to be opened up to the strongest girl in the world.