Way to go, Jakieboy!!!

Benny, Dad, Mom, Jake, Jared Tomich and Brandon at the Husker Hog Ride.


Welcome to Jacob's Web Page! Jacob is 11 years old and was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma of his skull (temporal bone)on Feb 1, 2003. In January of 2003, Jake started having mild headaches 2-3 times a week. We made an appointment with our pediatrician and he sent us for an MRI (thanks Dr. Harrison!). The MRI showed a lemon size tumor in his head, smashing his cerebellum. Jake's tumor was hypervascular - there was no way to biopsy it and there were doubts that it could be removed surgically without Jake bleeding to death. With the work of our neurosurgeon, Dr. Hellbusch, consulting docs around the country, it was decided to do an Embolization Surgery and then try and remove the tumor. At that time the consensus was that his tumor was probably a benign brain tumor with the small possiblity of it being a sarcoma. After the Embolization surgery done at the University of Iowa by Dr. Chaloupka, we were ambulanced back to Omaha Children's Hospital where Jake's tumor was almost completely removed in a miracle surgery in which he lost 8 units of blood (about 3 times his total blood volume) on January 28th. Once the tumor was removed, our greatest fear was realized when pathology showed the tumor to be Ewing's Sarcoma - a highly malignant bone tumor that rarely occurs in the skull. Jake completed 14 rounds of chemotherapy (at Children's) and 5 and a half weeks of radiation (IMRT - at the Univ. Of Nebraska Medical Center) in which he suffered a 3rd degree burn. His treatment ended in December of 2003. During his routine scans done on Sept 22nd, 2005 evidence of new tumor was seen, and Jake had a mastoidectomy to determine what the abnormality was. Thankfully, pathology reports showed it to be scar tissue from radiation! Scans done in December 2007 showed no evidence of disease and expected post surgical and radiation abnormalities. We will have Jake's last set of scans in December of 2008. Jake has permanent hair loss from radiation and some trouble with walking and running from the chemo, but overall he is doing great! We have received such unbelievable help and support from so many - thank you - you are a huge part of why Jake is doing so well!
Love, Steve (Dad), Kellie (Mom), Brandon (9 year old brother), Benny (4 year old Brother) and the amazing
Jacob Beresh! :~)

Other children dear to our hearts (More site listed below under links):

Angel Lizzie (1992-2006) Hepatablastoma

Joshua Larson (7) with relapsed Pleuropulmonary Blastoma-now back in remission!!!


Angel Tanner(1998-2007)Ewing's Sarcoma

Angel Brant (1998-2005) Ependymoma.

Angel Benjamin (1997-2005) Medulloblastoma

Journal

Saturday, November 8, 2008 5:21 PM CST

Hi! I had to get on here and update to get the pumpkins off the page. I updated the photo page too.

Halloween was great - the boys had a great time. Ben was many things. He was strong boy at his preschool Halloween party, Optimus Prime at the neighborhood get together, a football player at Brandon's school party and then "dead boy" for trick or treating. He was going to be a dinosaur and then he saw Jake making his costume by tearing up a shirt and putting fake blood on his face and he was hooked. It was so warm Halloween night, and the boys had a blast.

Brandon's flag football team won the championship! They were undefeated and only ever had one touchdown scored on them all season! Way to go, Coach Dad!

Jake is having his final scans on December 11th. I can't believe it has been this long. Sometimes it seems like it just happened yesterday and other times it feels like a lifetime ago. I can't even begin to describe what it feels like to be at this point. We will never feel safe, but we have really learned to live with the insecurity. Overall we are just thankful.

It's getting cold and the holidays are fast approaching. It will be a nice, quiet winter. We did not let Jake play basketball this year as it was just getting too rough. He was, to put it bluntly, P$ about our decision as he loves to play and be on a team. But he has also learned to live with his restrictions, and we just don't allow him to pout too long about it. It stinks, but it could always be worse. So just Brandon is playing basketball right now. It's great having so many evenings to hang out here at home. Our spring will be crazy with both the older boys in baseball and Ben starting soccer, so we plan to enjoy these quiet nights.

I will update after scans in December. We appreciate you stopping in and checking on us! Go give blood! Make it a great day and love up those kiddos!

Kellie, Steve, Jake, Brandon and Benny

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E-mail Author: scbkab@cox.net