Inspiring

Dylan having fun fishing 3-22-12

"What Cancer Cannot Do"

Cancer is so limited.........

It cannot cripple love. It cannot shatter hope. It cannot corrode faith. It cannot eat away peace. It cannot destroy confidence. 

It cannot kill friendship.  
It cannot shut out memories.
It cannot quench the spirit.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot reduce eternal life.

Dylan has been doing well since we came back from Duke.  He is back on his normal regimen of the medication for the cortisol, and has not had any episodes.....THANK YOU JESUS! 

He is also doing well in school, hopefully we will have an uneventful rest of the school year! 

The Prater Family

Test Results.........

Dylan's endocrinologist, Dr. MacIver emailed me today and told me that the Prolactin and Thyroid labs that were ran last week on Dylan, came back normal, YEAH!  

So, Dylan only has to continue taking the meds 2x daily for the adrenal insufficiency.  While at Duke, I did confirm that there are no side effects of the drug for Dylan.  The doctors told me that because Dylan's ACTH gland in his brain is not making enough cortisol for his body, that his body needs it.  Because his body needs it, there will not be any side affects, however, the doctor did say that Dylan will have to take this for the rest of his life because the ACTH gland will shrink and stop making cortisol all together, KINDA SCARY!

I also have to carry around the emergency syringe kit if Dylan ever needs it, due to any PHYSICAL stress.

Dylan has been on his regular dosage of medication since 3-17, the doctors told me to monitor him for 7-10 days, and if he does not have any dizziness, that's great.  If he does have dizziness, I need to take him to a local ENT to check his inner ear.  I will also continue keeping a log of anything that happens, and updating the team of doctors at Duke as needed.  We will return to Duke again in six months, unless something happens before then.

We GREATLY APPRECIATE all the support, prayers, and donations, to help our family through this most recent follow-up.  May GOD Bless You ALL!

The Prater Family

Duke Trip

We arrived at the hotel around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday 3-14 evening, and we crashed.  Thursday morning I took Dylan to his MRI at 7:30a.m., they did an MRI with and without contrast, so Dylan had to have an IV put in his arm.  From there we went to his neuro-opthalmology appt., and we finished the eye exam rather quickly.  The doc said Dylan's eyes are great, in fact, better than they were last Sept.when he checked them. He said the problem is not in his eyes, that it could be a brain thing. We still don't know what the MRI results are. We are getting some lunch and then we have 3 more appts this afternoon.

We finally got done at the doctor's at about 6pm, and EVERYTHING looks GREAT! The doctors can't really explain the dizziness and vision issues that Dylan has been having, there is no fluid in his brain and no new growth....PRAISE GOD! However, they did draw more blood today to check his thyroid and prolactin glands, we were told to keep giving Dylan the meds for his adrenal gland, give it 7-10 days and see if his body will adjust to the medication. The neurologist said that the radiation may have affected these glands and that's why they are not functioning properly, BUT these are easily treatable without side affects, YEAH!

The doctors still want me to continue keeping a log of things that happen, so we can have a history or to see any patterns. The oncologist mentioned possibly the inner ear affecting Dylan (dizziness) and that if the meds don't rectify the problem to maybe see and ENT specialist locally, other than that, IT'S ALL GOOD NEWS........HALLELUJAH! Dylan will be scheduled to return again in 6 months, unless something happens before then.
We want to SINCERELY THANK ALL the prayer warriors out there that have been praying for Dylan, I will admit, I was very nervous and scared about this appt., but GOD ALWAYS KNOWS BEST!

Something else happened during our eventful trip..........while our minivan sat in the parking garage, some lady backed up straight into the back of our van! There is a HUGE dent, luckily the lady called the police and he took a report with her info, then when we came out to our van we had to call the police and do a report.

So now, we have to get our van fixed! This same thing happened to us when we went to UVA with Dylan the first time. At least we ALL have God and our HEALTH! AMEN!

We all made it back home safely Friday morning around 10am, we were ALL wore out, so we rested most of the day.

The Prater Family

Dylan.............

Well, I had to pick Dylan up again from school today, he's had 4 episodes of dizziness and headaches. I called his doctor immediately, she told me to increase his meds for the next 24hrs and when we get to Duke on Thursday she wants to run more in depth blood work on the rest of his hormones. 

PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM!!!!

Also Miranda Beck posted this is the Salem Times for our family:
http://blogs.roanoke.com/sosalem/2012/03/update-on-dylan-prater/ 

More News....

NEWS ON DYLAN............

Dylan's endocrinologist called me today to see how Dylan is doing with the meds and she gave me good and bad news.  Dylan is doing GREAT and feels good on the meds, that is the good news.  The bad news is, because he is responding so well to the medication it means that his adrenal gland in his brain is not working.  The adrenal gland in the brain triggers when to send cortisol into the body, and since Dylan's is not working properly, the medication, which is a steroid, takes the place of giving Dylan's body the cortisol that he needs, and that is why he feels so much better.

The doctor said he will need to be on this steroid for an undetermined amount of time, and that means his body will STOP making cortisol all together. 
Sooo, if Dylan gets very sick, has to have any surgery, breaks a bone, or ANYTHING that causes his body to be under a lot of physical stress, we have to call his doctor immediately b/c the dosage of the steroid will have to be increased dramatically.  I asked the doctor if this means emotional stress, and she said no, there is a difference between physical and emotional stress.  I also asked about side affects of the steroid, the doctor said, if I were to look up the medication on the internet it would show a lot of side affects, HOWEVER, Dylan's body needs this drug, b/c he is not producing it, so he will not have the side affects.
PLEASE CONTINUE to pray b/c we still have to find out what is going on with Dylan's eyes, and of course another MRI.

Thanks for ALL your SUPPORT and PRAYERS!

New Update............

Another UPDATE ON DYLAN....

After getting home from the pediatrician today, Dylan's endocrinologist from Duke called me. She ordered blood work to be done locally the other day and she got the results back. She ordered testing on his levels of cortisol and ADTH (Adrenocorticotropic hormone), these should typically be an average of
15 for Dylan's age, she is ok with readings as low as 10, however, Dylan's readings were 5, which is VERY LOW! 

So she sent a prescription to the local CVS for a hormone tablets, and told me to have Dylan take 3 of these in the next 24 hrs, with the first dosage being tonight. She also ordered and emergency injection kit with the pills, she told me if Dylan gets sick and starts throwing up from the meds, that I need to immediately inject him with the injection. The doc told me if the meds are working that he should start feeling better by tomorrow and we can lower the dosage of the medication.

However, if he does not get any better, then there is a problem bigger than his hormones. His endocrinologist is on call this weekend at Duke, so she told me to check in with her tomorrow about Dylan's status, and of course call her for any complications. So, I have to go to 2 different pharmacies right now to get these for Dylan and give them to him tonight.I just gave Dylan his first set of 3 tablets, then he has to have 3 more in the morning and 3 more tomorrow afternoon, will keep you all updated on his status.

PLEASE Pray..........

Dylan is home again today because as he was getting ready for school, he kept getting dizzy again. This has been a daily thing since 2-29-12, I am taking him to the pediatrician today, in hopes that maybe he just has an ear infection (crossing-fingers). Please continue prayers for him and me, I just can't get rid of this feeling in my stomach that his dizziness, eye problems, and head pains are related to the cancerous brain tumor, fluid, and radiation that he had done. We continue to pray and I know he will get us through this, I will update after his appt. today. 

I want to THANK EVERYONE who is praying and supporting us, MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

End of A Season.......

Dylan at Harlem Globetrotters game March, 2012

DYLAN UPDATE:

Well Dylan finished out the basketball season, he had a great time.  His team won the championship for his division and he was very proud of that!  We also got basketball pictures made of him, the first set of sports pictures since before he diagnosed with the cancerous brain tumor, (June, 2010).

Dylan has had some things happening to him since the last update I posted.............

I picked Dylan up from school yesterday because he was having a headache and dizziness; this has been going on every day off and on since 2-29-12, the headaches he is having start at the base of his neck left side, running diagonal over top of his head to the front near his right temporal area.  He has also had some vision issues, consisting of: blurred vision, things shifting while looking at them, making his eyes hurt, and bright lights making his eyes and head hurt.

I emailed Dylan's doctors at Duke about all this, and his endocrinologist ordered some labs to be drawn locally to check his ability to make the stress hormones cortisol and ACTH - cortisol is very important for maintaining normal blood pressure and blood sugar during times of physical stress.  He had to do a fasting lab, so I took Dylan to a local lab this morning for these tests, and the lab will fax the results to Dylan's endocrinologist at Duke.

NEXT.....Dylan has his 6 month appointments again, at Duke next week.  He has a scheduled MRI, and he will see his Oncologist, Neurologist, and his Neuro-Opthalmologist.  The neuro-opthalmologist is the doctor the does very intensive visual testing on Dylan's eyes.  His eyes were checked a year ago, and everything looked good, however, with the brain surgery that was done, the neorosurgeons had to work VERY CLOSELY to his eyes, b/c the pineal gland that the tumor was on is DIRECTLY behind the eyes.  

Dylan's eyes are really worrying me, so I would like to ask EVERYONE to pray for Dylan and the wisdom and guidance of the doctors during this upcoming visit!

We will have to pay for travel, food, and lodging, once again, when we go to Duke next week.  If you feel lead to make a financial donation to help us pay for this trip, it will be greatly appreciated and wisely used!

Please join our family in helping Dylan with his continued fight, 
and ongoing treatments.   
(WE RETURN TO DUKE ON 3/14/12)

A bank account has been set up at the Salem VA Federal Credit Union in the name of Kerry Prater and/or Dylan Prater:


Make Payable to: 4DYLANZBRAINTUMORAWARENESS FUND
(formerly known as The Dylan Prater Benevolence Fund)
 OR to Dylan Prater/Kerry Prater
AT ANY
Salem VA Credit Union
1970 Roanoke Blvd Bldg 77, Suite 12
Salem, VA 24153
(540) 344-4419 or 1-800-308-6384

DONATIONS can be made at above address or by clicking this link.

Any and all donations will be deeply appreciated.

Thank You for helping Fighting4Dylan!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

We especially know that times are hard on so many people right now, we have prayed about this upcoming trip and Dylan's unknown future, and we know that the Lord will take care of our family and that any support we receive will be more than sufficient to help us through this next round of hospital visits and testing. Once again we ask our many prayer warriors to pray and forward this to all of your prayer warriors.

Thank you so very much for taking time to read this and praying for our family.

God bless,
The Prater Family

Dylan with his baby sister Kaylee