More News.............

Dylan just finished playing a season of soccer, and tried out for a whole week for the middle school basketball team, however, throughout this he had complained of pain in his left foot. 

So, we took Dylan to an orthopedic doctor today and found out he has a broken bone in his foot!!!  The doctor put him in a boot and told us to come back in 4 weeks, he is also out of gym class for 6 weeks.   

Dylan is so tore up and very upset about this!  The doctor explained to him that if he does not get this fixed now, it could get worse and could cause having to have surgery, so we explained to him the importance of getting this taken care of now.  

Ever since Dylan's brain cancer and his surgeries, Dylan had to give up football, which was VERY HARD on him.  He relied on basketball and soccer to fill the void of football, and NOW he can't play basketball for this season!  Please pray that Dylan's foot heals properly and that he will adjust emotionally to all of this.

Thanks,
The Prater Family

Test Results............

Just want to let everybody know that Dylan's test results came back this week for his testosterone.  His levels are within NORMAL RANGE-----------PRAISE GOD!  They were on the low end of normal, but for now everything is good!   YEAH!
Dylan spent this week trying out for the Andrew Lewis Middle School Basketball team.  He did wonderful, he made the first cut......YEAH!  But then today was the final cut and he did not make it.  : (
We told Dylan not to worry about it, that he did great, and he can try again next year.  We did sign him up for the Rec team, so he will be able to play for them.  I told Dylan playing for rec. is not as stressful and he can improve his skills for tryouts next year.

God Bless You All!

News on Dylan...........

First let me apologize for the lateness of this post!!!!!!!
There is a very good reason I will tell you about after Dylan's update.

We went to Duke on 9/11-9/13/12, Dylan had his MRI and his visit with the neurosurgeon.  The MRI came back EXCELLENT, no new growth and NO CANCER!   PRAISE GOD!  The visit with the neurologist was just as good, so the Oncologist did not need to see us, and the neurologist told us we can start coming once a year instead of twice a year.......YEAH!  Dylan has grown SO MUCH......he is 5"5' (my height) and weighs 115lbs, he is getting so big!!! He reminds Mike and I how tall he is everyday!


We had to re-schedule Dylan's appointment's with the neuro-psychologist, and his endocrinologist because we had to come back home unexpectedly.  We found a great Pediatric Endocrinologist here in Roanoke, so we re-scheduled Dylan's appointment with her.  Dylan is still taking Hydrocortisone tablets for his cortisol insufficiency and has not had any issues with that.  However, for several weeks, he had been complaining of his body getting REALLY HOT, on the inside of his body.  These "hot flashes" do not last very long, however, we did tell the doctor about it at his appointment.  Dylan saw her a couple weeks ago, here in Roanoke, and she drew all his labs that are normally done at Duke, and she did an exam on him.  
We thought everything went well with his appointment, then we got a phone call this past week about Dylan's labs.  The doctor told us that everything looked good, EXCEPT Dylan's testosterone levels were low.  The doctor told us to bring Dylan back to get an 8am lab drawn so she could see his levels with that.  She said if it comes back below normal, that he will have to start getting injections of testosterone.  We took him this past Friday to get his blood drawn, most likely we will hear something this coming up week.  We are praying that it comes back normal, I just hate for him to have to start getting injections on top of already taking medication 3 times a day, he has been through so much, PLEASE PRAY WITH US!

The reason we had to come back from Duke early is because we got some VERY DISTURBING NEWS about me.  I had been very sick for a month, and unable to work.  After being hospitalized here in Salem, and seeing a few doctors here, I was told that I had something in my brain in "the pineal region", however, nobody locally could help me.  So, I made an appointment with the top adult neurosurgeon at Duke, and I saw him while we were there for Dylan, on 9/11/12.  The "PINEAL GLAND" is the same location that Dylan had his cancerous brain tumor!!!!!!!  When I saw the doctor at Duke, he looked at my MRI and told me there was a tumor mass in "the pineal region", however, he could not tell if it was cancerous or not. After we talked about my symptoms that I had been having for a month, and what Dylan's diagnoses and treatments were, the doctor recommended that I have surgery, THE SAME EXACT SURGERY THAT DYLAN HAD AT DUKE IN NOVEMBER, 2010............WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, I had brain surgery on October 1, 2012 at Duke.  I don't want to fill this website with my issues, so if anybody would like to read and follow my story, PLEASE go to my CaringBridge site: 

Site Address:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/kerryprater

Site Name:

kerryprater

PLEASE pray with us for normal labs for Dylan, we should get results this week, and I will post as soon as we find out.

Thank you ALL for following Dylan's story, and ALL your prayers and support!

Kerry Prater