Background

Just to give a little background for those who may not have the full story or any story at all.

Jared Vance was diagnosed with a Chordoma tumor in May of 2009. He had been experiencing headaches and irregular speech when we realized that half of his tongue was not working. This obviously made us a bit nervous so we scheduled him for CT scans and an MRI. After all the imaging the doctors came to the conclusion that Jared was suffering from a Chordoma tumor at the base of his skull. The tumor sits just behind the nasal and throat area of the head. The tumor is extremely rare and is locally malignant. This means that it rarely metastisizes to other locations in the body, but will invade and attack local tissue. So far the only things that we are aware that are affected are the nerves going to his tounge and now to his eye which result in double vision and the elimination of the clivus bone. There is a possibility that it has invaded the top two vertibrate of the spine, but we are crossing our fingers that it has not. It is large enough that the tumor is putting pressure on Jared's airway causing him to snore like a mad dog and have difficulty swallowing. All in all it is a pretty uncomfortable experience for Jared.

On the other hand Jared has been wonderful throughout all of this and we are proud to have such a good natured child. He will rarely complain, but will join us nightly in bed for a night of snoring fun. We don't have the heart to send him back to his room so we just enjoy the moment as best we can. He has been a bit lethargic lately and just not himself. We miss having Jared's playful attitude in the home and so does his sister and brother. He is a tender kid and we love him and we are praying for a real miracle so that we can enjoy his laughter and personality for many years to come.