Tatumn’s Story – Update

UPDATE
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we inform you that Tatumn has lost her fight against this “nasty” tumor (DIPG, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma) on February 22, 2012.  We try to find peace in believing that Tatumn is spending her days as they should be…running, laughing, dancing, singing and at times commanding her “Royal Court.”  Please continue to pray for her remarkable family, who will forever feel her absence; may they find the strength to live their lives as she did…

“What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller

Tatumn’s Story
This autumn, Tatumn was so excited to start preschool!  What were mornings that included rides on the back of her dog, Pepsi, afternoons waiting for her brother and sisters to get off the bus; Tatumn was going to finally have her time at “school.” However, rather than spending her days making new friends, creating elaborate masterpieces on the art easel and “cooking” in her classroom’s housekeeping area; her days have become quite different.  These days Tatumn has become a child that will not let her Mother out of her sight, she has become a little girl who tries to find the joy in an unexpected, extended visit from her Nana, a kid sister who waits for her brother and sisters to come to her to make her smile; that smile her Dad so anxiously waits for.  This autumn, Tatumn was supposed to start pre-school.  Yet instead of going to preschool, her days have become filled with daily visits to the hospital for radiation treatments, equipped with a shunt to drain fluid off her brain, a port and a regular dose of prednisone. Tatumn has been through more in her short life than I am sure any of us can begin to understand.  What was supposed to be an autumn of new beginnings for Tatumn have become for her a new battle every day to overcome even your typical childhood illnesses due to a weakened immune system.  This was supposed to be Tatumn’s time.

What was thought to be your typical childhood ear infection for Tatumn turned out to be so much more.  Every parent’s worst nightmare became true for Tatumn’s parents when it was discovered that Tatumn had a brain stem glioma (DIPG); an inoperable, aggressive brain tumor located in her brain stem.

If a child’s prognosis was simply based on a child’s spirit and love of life, Tatumn would be with us all until she’s a “101.”  But for today, Tatumn is fighting for tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that… She is strong and she has dreams, but she still needs our prayers.