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jbrauns
@gocougs.wsu.edu

			Fall 2002		October 2005

WELCOME

This site is for Brandon and his friends and family. Thank you for visiting. This site was established to keep you updated on Brandon's treatment and progress in fighting his disease. We appreciate all of the support and love we have received since this all began. We wish we had the time to thank each of you personally, as we don't please let this note serve as a big hug and thank you from us! Love, Jeff, Kris and Brandon Brauns

About Brandon and his fight.

On February 4th, 2003 Brandon was diagnosed with a mass at the back of his brain. We would later learn that the mass was an Ependymoma, a malignant brain tumor. He had surgery on February 10th at Children's Hospital in Seattle where Dr. Avellino was able to remove approximately 50% of the tumor. Brandon recovered well from the surgery and was able to leave the hospital without a shunt. However the surgery caused some deficits that caused him to be unable to safely swallow. For the next several months all of his feeding was done by an NG tube. After meeting with the Oncology team at Children's a treatment plan was established. Brandon would receive two cycles of chemotherapy followed by a possible second surgery and then radiation therapy.

The first of two chemo cycles began on February 28, 2003. Following the 6 weeks of chemotherapy the tumor showed no response as far as shrinking. We felt at this time we needed to find an institution that had treated more childhood Ependymomas than any other. This led us to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. They have treated over 90 in the last 5 years, being such a rare tumor that is 5 times as many as most institutions. Their success rate of kids not having their tumor recur after 4 years is above 85%!!! Brandon had his 2nd surgery on May 2nd in Memphis performed by Drs. Boop and Sanford to remove the remainder of his tumor. (there is still a tiny piece near his brain stem that was too risky to remove). Brandon then continued with 6 weeks of radiation that ended on 7/3/03. During that time he also had a "Mickey Button" put in his tummy to replace the bulky G-Tube! We flew home on the 4th of July!

Once at home life has been good. There were some adjustments to make but it has been the best medicine! Please click here to see all updates of future and present since we returned home in July!!

On August 18, 2005 after a follow-up MRI at St Jude we discovered that Brandon's tumor had recurred.  After working closely with the doctors at both Seattle Children's and St Jude we determined that surgery followed by radiation was the best course of treatment for Brandon.  This was a very difficult decision but one that we both believed would give Brandon the best chance for survival.  Brandon had a third surgery on Wednesday, October 26 in Memphis by Drs. Boop and Sanford.  The surgery was successful and they were able to remove all of the tumor except for some "smudges" along the brain stem and cranial nerves.  Following surgery Brandon underwent radiation therapy to the full brain and spine.  We returned home on December 15.   Brandon is doing well and is back at school full-time.  Please see the updates page for the latest.