Today is September 10th – the 10th day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Today I want to honor Bishop Mikaelian. Bishop was diagnosed with a 2 cm tumor on her brain stem in March 2009. The brain stem controls all the vital organs. So a tumor located there is extremely dangerous. After nine hours of surgery, the doctors determined that the tumor was inoperable. They were only able to perform a biopsy that showed the tumor was a Ganglioglioma – a low-grade cancerous tumor that arises from ganglia-type cells (groups of nerve cells). During this time, the Mikaelians relied on a lot of family and friends for support and to help take care of Bishop’s younger brother, Warrick, while they were at the hospital with Bishop. Ive mentioned before how siblings are affected by cancer. Their whole lives change, too. One sweet story that happened early in Bishops treatment and shows one way that her church supported Bishop is that the children at their church dedicated a flower garden to her and named it “Bishop’s Garden.” Things like that mean so much the children battling cancer. After surgery, Bishop went through 30 maximum doses of radiation treatments; but the radiation did not reduce the tumor. Not only did the tumor not reduce, it grew to 3 cm. After radiation, Bishop developed hydrocephalus (water in the brain), which made it necessary to have a permanent shunt placed in her head to drain the fluid into her stomach. The doctors scheduled Bishop for 12 months of chemotherapy. However, she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia so often that it stretched out to 15 months instead. The chemotherapy stopped the tumor from growing, but it didn’t shrink it. In February 2010, Bishop spent 4 weeks in the ICU. She was in a medically induced coma for 8 days and was on life support. Larisa and I visited with Bishop’s mom, Allison, during that time, and it was scary indeed. The PICU is intense, to say the least. Doctors had to perform a tracheotomy because Bishop’s throat muscles had gotten so weak that she would aspirate and that could cause life-threatening pneumonia. Bishop had the trach for two years and still deals with reoccurring chronic pneumonia. In fact, Bishop has battled pneumonia so often that she has permanent scarring in her lungs. In July 2012 she was diagnosed with Bronchiectasis, which is when the airways in the lungs are stretched and widened by mucus blockage. More and more mucus builds up which leads to infection. Additionally, Bishop’s left vocal cord is paralyzed, and she has surgery semi-annually to plump her cords in order to speak. She can’t eat or drink by mouth; she gets her nutrients and liquids through a g-tube in her stomach. If all that weren’t enough, Bishop also deals with weak motor skills, neuropathy, short-term memory loss and Grand Mal seizures. She has speech therapy (to strengthen throat muscles in order to swallow again), physical and occupational therapy, as well. It all sounds overwhelming, and yet Bishop hasn’t let it stop her. This past summer Bishop was able to attend two different “cancer camps.” For families that don’t have kids battling cancer, the appeal of a camp for cancer kids might not be apparent. However, cancer kids love being with other kids who know exactly what they’re going through. There, all the medical paraphernalia and side effects and baggage that go with a cancer diagnosis are just part of their lives. In other words, they aren’t “cancer kids” at camp; they are simply kids – which is what they want most. Plus the camp is staffed with childhood oncology doctors and nurses. Medical care, treatments and therapy are done right there, and the kids can go right back to their camp activities. From what Lily has told me and from what I hear from other families, kids love going to cancer camp. So Bishop was doubly blessed to be able to experience two weeks of camp this summer. More good news is that Bishop’s latest MRI (July 2014) came back “stable,” and her latest oxygen test came back better than the previous one. Bishop is a freshman in high school now. She’s a big LSU fan. She and her family will be heading to Baton Rouge in a couple weeks for a game. She also is a big Doctor Who fan. She’s on the yearbook staff and the British Culture Club at her school. She likes art, make-up, photography, fashion designing and antagonizing Warrick. Bishop, your battle has been tough – and it continues to be tough – but you keep going with both inward and outward grace and beauty. We love you.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:37:19 +0000
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