🎗💛🙏We have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love, care and genuine concern for our family since the diagnosis of our sons cancer. Jacob, Jon, Taylor and I agreed to create a page so anyone who wants to follow Jacob’s journey to recovery is welcome. On September 2, 2017 our family received sudden and devastating news that has truly tested our faith, strength and resolve as family.
Our extremely healthy 12 year old son Jacob who’s an athlete through and through, an amazing student and genuinely sweet soul was diagnosed with a brain tumor after taking him to the emergency room for what we thought were migraines. As the doctors were explaining Jacob’s diagnosis to my husband and I, we realized that was the very moment the earth literally stood still, our bodies felt limp and we were at a loss of breath as we were told Jacob has type 4 malignant medulloblastoma, a very aggressive brain cancer.
This was the worst news of our lives as parents and the day our world was forever changed as a family. Tuesday, September 5th Jacob underwent a tedious 14 hour surgery performed by the most incredible neuro surgeon, Dr. Phillip Aldana. The last MRI showed Dr. Aldona and his incredible team were successful in removing the entire tumor with minimal damaged to his good brian tissue, the tumor was removed from his cerebellum part of the brain so he may have some small issues with his fine and complex motor skills but we’ll take it! He can recover these skills with a little work and physical therapy.
This is our first major win in a very long journey to recovery. As of today we’ve been at Wolfson Children’s Hospital going on 9 days with many more to come. There are no words to express how incredible, loving and simply outstanding everyone associated with Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital has been to Jacob and our family in this most surreal and traumatic time in our lives. Jacob remains in PICU with a drainage tube from his brain to remove excess fluid and we’re patiently awaiting to determine if fluid will begin to drain to his spine on its own now that the tumor has been removed without the need for a shunt, next Thursday we’ll hopefully have more clarity (prayers for no shunt) lots of prayers and fingers crossed.
Today, Saturday Sept. 9th we just met with Jacob’s lead oncologist Dr. Sandler and he is incredible, very compassionate and took so much time with our family. Although the next steps of Jacob’s journey were very hard and at times excruciating to hear we are ready to fight. Jacob’s cancer treatment will require 6 full weeks, 5 days a week of proton radiation therapy to his brian and spine followed by a year or more of chemotherapy, which will require a hospital stay every 3 to 4 weeks for 2 to 3 days at a time for treatment. We are blessed with the fact Jacob is strong, tenacious and a fighter and Wolfson’s has one of the top oncology teams and programs in the entire world and since day 1 they were already working on a master plan tailored to Jacob for his full recovery. With the grace of God, Jacob will beat this thing and we know in our hearts Jacob will go on to live a normal, healthy and long cancer free life.
This said, there are no words to express how truly humbled and beyond belief we are by outpouring of prayers, genuine love, care and concern for our sweet boy from our family, friends, Jacob’s football family, Taylor’s cheer family and our community as a whole. Thank you all for your continued prayers and love for our family. We are certain God has lifted Jacob up by your prayers and he will continue to get stronger and kick cancers butt. There is no other option but full recovery by the grace of God.
Jacob is doing well today. He’s in a lot of pain but this is temporary. He is strong, determined and brave and we are prepared to walk to the end of the earth to fight this fight with him until his full recovery. Thank you all so much from the bottom of our hearts for your love, support and continued prayers. It will never be forgotten. We will continue to post updates of Jacob and our journey on this page #TeamShedlin in hopes this will help uplift others and surround Jacob with positive energy and prayers until this battle is won. For nothing is impossible with God Luke 1:37🎗🙏💛. #TeamShedlin #HopeFaithCourage #KickCancersButt #PowerofPrayer #JacobStrong #WolfsonChildrensHospital #GoGold
https://www.facebook.com/teamshedlin/
Hi Jacob, cancer is a challenge that many of us face at sometime in our lives. For me it was 12 years ago and with God’s grace I’m still enjoying the blessings of a full life at age 80. Trust in the Lord and know you can do this. If it’s been done, it’s probably possible. May God bless you and keep you in his arms. Your new friend, Ron McConnell
Hi Ron, thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement and support. I’ll make sure Jacob receives your message.