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Haley Pilar Vana 
Haley with her two wonderful friends, Lorraine and Tami, July 2007
Welcome to Haley's Web Page. After undergoing a biopsy, Haley was diagnosed in April 2002 with an inoperable anaplastic astrocytoma, an aggressive brain tumor for which there is no cure. She underwent 18 months of antineoplaston therapy with Dr. Burzynski and 8 months of Protocel. For over two years her tumor remained stable. In July 2004 Haley underwent a temporal lobectomy (craniotomy) to remove some of the tumor and to help relieve her many focal seizures. Over 1/2 of the tumor was removed, the seizures were stopped, and the tumor was rediagnosed as a ganglioglioma, a low-grade brain tumor. In January 2005 it was determined that the remaining tumor had experienced some growth. On January 26, 2005 Haley underwent a second surgery to remove some of the growth and as much tumor as possible. On Feb 18, 2005 she began 10-12 cycles of Temodar, an oral chemotherapy. On September 7, 2005 Haley underwent a third surgery to remove a cyst and more tumor, and remained on the Temodar protocol, but an MRI in November showed new tumor activity. On January 18, 2006 she began six weeks of intensity modulation radiation at Stanford, finishing up the treatment on March 1st. Thanks for visiting her website; please leave a message in the guestbook while you are here.
Haley's tag (above) is compliments of the TAWC taggers. If you would like to receive your own set, please send an email to Kristy (kristyday@gmail.com) and let her know!
Journal
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:31 PM CDT Good news! Haley's MRI last week shows no change in the tumor. It is stable! Hooray!
Her oncologist says that if the tumor goes 4 to 5 years without any change then there is a good chance that it will never grow again. So now we just scan every six months and keep an eye on it.
One thing that did concern us is that Haley is not quite nine years old but is showing the beginning signs of puberty. Blood tests revealed that those hormones are elevated more than they should be in someone of her age, most likely due to the pituatary gland being affected by radiation. We are going to do a bone age test to see if her bones are starting to fuse together (a normal product of puberty). This test will be done by having her hand x-rayed. If her bones are not fusing yet, it will indicate that she has a long ways to go with puberty and will likely start menstruating at an early, but still considered normal, age of 11. If they show more progression with fusion, then we will likely put her on medication to halt the puberty process for a year or so. We have a follow up appt with the endocrinologist in three months.
Thanks for stopping by Haley's website!
Read Journal History
Links: http://www.caringbridge.org/nv/baileyaustinjohnson Check out Bailey's website. He's a little boy who lives near Haley who is fighting neuroblastoma.
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