Luke’s Story August 29, 2008 began like any other day. After school Luke was playing at a friend’s house and I received a phone call around 1:20 that Luke was acting funny. I spoke with Luke on the phone and knew something was wrong. I raced over to Luke’s friend’s home and immediately knew I had to take him to the ER. As we entered into the ER, they immediately took him back for a CT scan as we thought that maybe he had hit his head and was suffering from a concussion…..but to our SURPRISE the CT scan showed something much different. Luke had a BRAIN TUMOR. Everything happened so fast, we know believe Luke suffered from a seizure at his friends and proceeded to have another Grand Mal Seizure in the hospital. They immediately sedated Luke and prepared him for transport down to Milwaukee’s Children’s Hospital, but they needed to wait for the helicopter to come up from Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee because the local Theda Star (helicopter) here didn’t have the necessary equipment to help Luke in case of an emergency. By 6:00pm we were down with Luke in the PICU and were in disbelief. NO PARENT SHOULD EVER HAVE TO HEAR THE WORDS YOUR CHILD HAD BRAIN CANCER!!! Life will never be the same for Luke or our family. Luke had brain surgery to remove the tumor from his left occipital lobe on September 9, 2008. Surgery ”slowed him down” for awhile, but within weeks, Luke was able to attend Kindergarten and ”rough-house” with his friends and siblings. Luke - post surgery Pathologists around the country have determined that Luke’s tumor is an oligodendroglioma – grade III. Oligodendrogliomas are a rare Adult tumor (even more rare in children) and are generally felt to be incurable using current treatments. This type of tumor has a very high rate of recurrence and gradually increases in grade over time. We have received 2nd opinions from some of the best experts around the country. (including Johns Hopkins, St. Jude’s, Children’s Memorial and Mayo) As of today, Luke’s doctors have pursued a course of ”watchful waiting” and are treating Luke symptomatically with the use of anticonvulsants to control seizures. Luke and his parents travel to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee about every six weeks for scheduled MRI or EEG scans and to meet with doctors. LUKE IS A FOUR YEAR SURVIVOR! So when I ask for your support, I'm really asking you to support kids like me!!! Thank you! Click "Make a donation" to give online, or donate by phone or mail.