Shawna is a bright, spirited girl who accepts her cancer as something that she needs to deal with and move on. Cancer is nothing new for Shawna. She is facing and fighting it for the second time around in her young life.
In 1999, Shawna was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent surgery to try and remove the tumor. The doctors got as much as they could and chemotherapy treatments forced the cancer into remission.
“With the kind of cancer she has, the goal is to try and stop it from spreading,” Brahmer said. Shawna’s cancer is diagnosed as a GBM grade IV.
In 2004, Brahmer noticed that her daughter’s seizures were happening more often and that she was having other problems. A routine MRI confirmed that the cancer was again growing and on October 6, 2004, Shawna underwent another surgery, followed up by thirty three radiation treatments that lasted until December 2004, and chemotherapy.
Originally, the plan was to keep her on chemotherapy for a year, but her doctor hopes to keep her on the Temodar for as long as her body can take the chemicals—so far it has been sixteen months. Shawna takes seven pills a day for five straight days that keeps her cancer in check. Shawna has an MRI done every three months to track the cancer and to make sure it has not spread.
“She is doing great. Her next MRI is scheduled for next month. Instead of having MRIs every two months, she will be getting them every three,” Brahmer said. As a parent, Brahmer says the entire ordeal has been a scary one. She explained that the first time around was more scary because they did not know what to expect. At that time, the surgery was done on a Tuesday and by Friday she was home and back at school within
weeks.
Unlike the fast recovery of the first surgery, the 2004 surgery had more complications including Shawna’s right side being numb. Therapy at the hospital and physical therapy at home increased her use of her right side. However, even today her right foot is still numb. “If she stepped on her cat’s tail with that foot she wouldn’t know it unless the cat made noise,” Brahmer said.
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