The day Ashton flew in a helicopter.

As many of you already know, Ashton had been throwing up off and on for 6 months, with no other symptoms. Dr's would just say it was a virus. I started doing some research and thought he may have reflux disease, or GERD. The dr. put him on Prevacid and said come back in two weeks if things don't get any better. This was about 4 weeks ago. Two weeks ago I took him back and brought a journal of dates and times Ashton threw up. The real worrisome time was when
he seemed to be having a nightmare in the night and rolled over and vomit just ran out of his mouth. He never woke up, even through the bath we gave him. I thought he must really be tired because he recently stopped taking naps and there was the time change. Anyway, the dr. noticed that many of the times he threw up were in the morning. She asked if he had been complaining of headaches because throwing up in the morning could be a sign of brain swelling. She thought it would be a good idea for him to get a C.T. scan, but thought he should have an upper G.I. to test for reflux first. He was scheduled for the G.I. on Thurs. the 13th. On Wed. the 12 he had been throwing up all morning so I called my husband Pat and asked him to come home. I also called our Pediatrician and said I would be taking Ashton in to the Dominican E.R. for an I.V. because he just couldn't keep anything down. We got to the E.R. at about 9:30am and Ashton was so tired. He slept most of the time we were there. Pat and I waited in the room for some blood test results and ate lunch and thought everything was normal, but it wasn't. The dr. came back and said the blood tests were normal and he would need a urine sample before we left, but to still finish the I.V. We were about to be discharged but still needed to get the urine sample so I tickled Ashtons foot trying to wake him up. Thats when I noticed he was in a really deep sleep, a sleep I have never seen any of my kids be in. My tickling his foot made him start to "posture" but the nurse in the room said he was having a seizure. He arched his back and his tongue came out and his eyes rolled around in his head. I said to the nurse that something was wrong, he had never done that before and I looked at Pat and he was crying. Thats when I knew something was really wrong. The nurse hit the panic button but it seemed like minutes before anyone came. Pat actually had to yell down the hall for help. They rushed his bed down to the main part of the er where he was hooked up to various machines to take his vitals. Then they rushed him in to C.T. This whole time I felt like my insides were twisting and I was in some sort of crazy dream, I can't even explain the way I was feeling. It was the worst feeling in the world. After the C.T. they rushed him once again back to the ER where the DR. who originally was going to release Ashton, told me the news. He had a large mass in his brain. At this point Ashton started to Posture again and they had to put a breathing tube in him. The whole er was working on him....I had 2 chaplain by my side like grim reapers. Thats just how I felt then, now I think back and was grateful for them. The dr. got on the phone with Stanford and arranged for air transport. Neither Pat or I could go with him so we said our goodbyes and headed out on the longest car ride of our lives. When we reached the summit of 17 we saw the most touching sight. Off to the left of us, the sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful pink color, but up there in those beautiful clouds was the sillouette of our Ashtons helicopter, his very first ride. When we got to LPCH we got to see Ashton, he was basically in a coma and they had put a tube in his brain to drain the fluid. They took him to get an MRI and scheduled him for surgery with Dr. Edwards, my hero, the next morning. I could hardly sleep. The next morning we once again kissed him goodbye knowing the risks of brain surgery. While he was in surgery, another Neuro-surgeon came to us with the results of the MRI, it had spread to his spine and it was Cancer.
Medulloblastoma. Ashton did wonderful in surgery. He is still coming out of the effects of having the tumor on his brain stem and having it cut out so close. He is weak on the left side and his face sorta looks like he had a stroke, but he walked today, with help, and today, he smiled and laughed for the first time since his heroic ride in the helicopter.