Childhood Cancer Warrior: Jace

M Jase Flores was born 7-21-2013 along with his fraternal twin, Jude.

Although Jase was born a minute later, he was the first always! The first to get ready for school, the first to volunteer, the first one out the door! He was first because he was a definite leader. Jude followed along his best friend & brother.

Jase had some headaches to which we figured were his allergies. He would have a stuffy nose & occasional nose bleeds. Jase also had a habit of picking his nose, which we thought caused his nose bleeds. Dad took him to the doctor on Monday, February 17th. Their pediatrician referred us to an ophthalmologist to have his eyes dilated because he saw some spots in his eyes. Wednesday the 19th both of us took Jase to the ophthalmologist. From there we were told to go straight to the ER. There was bleeding behind his eye.

The ER doctor was baffled; Jase was talking, passed all the tests of counting backwards, hopping on one foot, walking backwards. Blood tests were normal. He said he was going to make a few calls. When he returned, the ER doctor said he spoke to the ophthalmologist & pediatrician and they agreed to do scans. So Jase was admitted. I stayed with him & at 4am he woke up complaining of a headache, then he had 2 seizures. He never had seizures. They worked hard to get him into scanning.

The doctors were shocked to have found a tumor on his brain stem. The tumor sat vertically instead of horizontal. That is why he had no effects of the tumor. The seizures were due to the tumor that was about to burst. The doctors placed a shunt hoping to drain the tumor so they can do surgery.

Jase never recovered and passed on Sunday the 23rd. Doctors tried to remove the tumor that Friday & during this process, they found out the cancer caused a heart condition as well. As terrible as this was, my husband reminds me it could have been worse. Jase didn’t have to have brutal treatment that Jude would have had to witness.

This is why we are advocates of pediatric cancer. Who knew that if you get your child’s eyes dilated, they can see everything! Bleeding, high blood pressure, high cholesterol – get your child’s eyes dilated! Who knew that blood tests don’t detect what is going on in the brain? We volunteer and advocate in honor of Jase.

When we would do errands or go to school, Jase would look up at the sky and tell me, “Mom it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” He would breath in the day & I thought, what 6 year old says that?! Our wise boy, who saw far beyond the clouds.

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