Prayers for Molly

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2/17/09

Dear Friends and Family,

We had wanted to share with everyone how Molly was doing and what he have learned about her long term condition since her operation.

The great news is that Molly has been doing fantastic physically, and neurologically. We were home Monday evening from our Friday surgery and Molly hasn’t looked back. She is laughing, running, jumping she is back to the way she was prior to the tumor affecting her life. Other than one very small issue with one of her eyes, which an eye Doctor will be looking at soon, her doctors see no other current side effects of the operation. They also believe that they were able to remove the whole tumor and the follow-up MRI seemed to confirm this – and her next MRI in May will hopefully confirm this fact. Molly’s strength, and resilience has impressed everyone around her… including the many doctors that make up her Oncology clinical team.



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The only troubling spot in all of this is that they have yet to come back with a clear, definitive pathology on the Tumor. Samples went to two labs and the first came back as “Inconclusive” but mentioned the possible presence of a very different tumor than what we were hoping for. The second lab that received a sample of the tumor for testing – is a far more qualified clinical pathologist at John’s Hopkins and this Doctor is running a more detailed series of tests to try to nail down what exactly we are facing. But this is going to take even more time now…

We have been hoping for all along what they call a JPA; a tumor that if caught before it gets into such critical systems as the spinal cord can be treated with 95% effectiveness with just surgery… AKA removal of the tumor. All other options come with some elevated risk of either dramatically increased re-occurrence rates or malignancy both of which are far scarier than the first option for our sweet Molly. We will continue to pray for strength as we wait…. It shouldn’t be too much longer now… at most another week before we have a better idea of where we go from here.

Please keep Molly in your prayers…. and Thank You for all the incredible support to date!


The Quigleys (Jim, Kathy, Caitlin and Molly)


2/1/09

Dear Friends and Family….

This started off being a very difficult letter to write… but what a difference a few days can make….

On Thursday of last week – Kathy and I took our youngest girl Molly (2 ½) in for an MRI. It was intended to just eliminate “the worst case” scenarios for what was becoming an ongoing string of headaches that our baby had been suffering from over the last few months. Unfortunately, we had one of those moments that you never thing will happen to you even in your worst nightmares… The radiologist pulled us aside and explained to us that they had found a massive tumor in Molly’s brain… and that we needed to immediately admit her to the ER.. I can tell you in that moment… time was frozen and it seemed like our world came crashing down around us. You never think it will be you living through those moments and when it is – you only wish there were some way to switch positions with your precious little one…. In the end you can only trust that the lord has a plan.

We are happy to say… it is three days later… and what will go down as the worst moment in our lives was quickly followed up by a string of some of the best. Molly was scheduled for surgery the next day at 7:30am… and after 5 hours of operating our God sent Neurosurgeon told us that he thought they had removed all of the tumor and that he felt comfortable classifying it as low stage & benign (something we hope to have confirmed early this week when the final pathology report comes back). Molly came through the operation with flying colors and within a few days was talking, laughing, had a few bites of pizza this evening, and even took a few steps. Today we had more good news as the follow up MRI seemed to confirm that the tumor appears to be gone, and there doesn’t seem to be any permanent damage caused by the invasiveness and size of the tumor. Right now the plan is to be home sometime Tuesday or Wednesday which will make little Molly very happy as she is very anxious to play and spend time with her older sister Caitlin (3 ½). Molly will live her young life going through constant MRI’s to make sure the tumor doesn’t return but with that being said for now at least – God has given us the gift of our child’s life.

If you want to see how much of a miracle that is… take a look at the MRI image below that left us cold in our tracks…. You can see how large the tumor was how absolutely incredible it is that she is up and about today….

Our thoughts and prayers are with other families tonight who are going through this traumatic experience – many of whom have a much longer, harder hill to climb. For us we are grateful for every day we are Blessed with our precious miracles – this event gives us greater pause as we reflect on the time we have with our children and all of our loved ones….

Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes – we have felt them all.











The left image is looking down on Molly’s head.. the item in white and the grey around it is the tumor… on the right is the side image of Molly’s head… and you see the tumor at the base of her brain in white. The other white material at the top - is the excessive spinal fluid caused by the tumor that gave Molly the headaches… those headaches ultimately saved her life.