On October 6, 2010 Tyler's parents brought him to John's Hopkins Hospital because he was having difficulty walking and complaining of headaches. The first thing the doctors ordered was a head CT scan, which revealed any parents worst nightmare. A tumor roughly the size of a baseball was taking over the right side of his brain. Two days later Tyler had a 12 hour surgery to remove the tumor, and the pathology showed he had a rare form of brain cancer called Ependymoma. To make matters even more devastating, the surgeon had to cut an artery to get the entire mass removed. This resulted in a massive stroke and Tyler was completely paralyzed on the left side of his body. He was immediately admitted to Kennedy Kreiger Institute for inpatient rehabilitation. After 3 months of intensive therapy Tyler was able to walk out of the rehab center. He still has weakness on his left side, and no fine motor function, but he is getting stronger everyday. Tyler had to undergo months of cancer treatments including radiation and chemotherapy. Although Tyler still faces side effects from his treatments, he is a happy and playful little boy. We are thrilled to share that he completed all his treatments in August 2011. Thankfully, his post-treatment scans have not shown any evidence of residual disease. You can read more about Tyler at www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylerbloom