Childhood Cancer Warrior: Brycen
As told by his mother, Liz
Brycen is a natural born athlete, he has been throwing, catching and batting balls since he could walk. Brycen was dominating 7th grade football rushing touchdowns, intercepting passes and making huge tackles. On the morning of September 29, 2023, it was Brycen who took a hard hit and we found ourselves rushing to the ER for a head injury; the results of his CT scan were much worse than we could have imagined. Incidentally, the doctors discovered a brain tumor, completely unrelated to the football injury.
We were rushed to Texas Children’s Hospital, for immediate evaluation where the Neurology team continued more testing and imaging. The medical staff was surprised to learn Brycen was completely asymptomatic, reporting no headaches, seizures or neurological disorders associated with this large mass in his brain. It was only by the grace of God that we found this mass and able to act so quickly. Considering the size, placement and aggravated swelling around the tumor, we were given two options, either operate as soon as possible or standby and monitor it, which would have kept Brycen on the sidelines for an indefinite timeline, and risk growth and damage to vital motor functions. We also would not know what the mass was until it was removed and tested.. So after thorough discussion of the risks and benefits, we agreed to a complete craniotomy and craniectomy on October 31, 2023.
After 9 hours in the operating room, Brycen was returned to us with total recession of the tumor and zero damage to his speech or vision pathways and no negative side effects. Pathology reported the tumor to be an Atypical Grade 2 Meningioma, a tumor extremely rare in children, and an incidence of only 0.14 in every 100,000 children. A meningioma is a mutation of the meninges, the membranes that cover the brain, and travel through the brain and spinal cord.
Brycen is currently having brain and spinal MRI’s every 3 months to monitor the original site of the tumor, which he has been clear of for a year now, whilst also monitoring new findings in his pelvic bone, unrelated.
Brycen has made his way back to the baseball diamond and the football field, having multi-homerun and multi-touchdown games, making this a part of his testimony rather than a handicap. Though we still walk through the fog and have hard days, we are fortunate to have an organization like Sky High fighting childhood cancer with us, funding research, educating the community, bringing much needed hope and joy during this journey and the days of the unknown a head of us.
