Our story has an amazing ending, so that is where I will start. October 2015 will mark 5 years for Halle off treatment and with no sign of disease!   If you saw her without knowing her cancer journey, you would never guess that she had any challenges beyond a normal 12 year old.  We have come a very long way in the last 5 years.

One morning at the end of June 2009, Halle woke up, cried out “Mommy, Mommy, my head!!!!” and then proceeded to throw up. In the weeks right before that, I thought she had a stomach virus. Halle was vomiting in the morning after waking up, randomly, off and on. The pediatrician did not find anything wrong, but she suggested that Halle get a CAT scan just in case, to cover the bases.  She did not seem overly concerned about getting the CAT scan, so I just put off the idea for a while.

But in those past few weeks, Halle had never mentioned any pain or her head before.  I was so scared when she cried out!  I scheduled a CAT scan immediately and the next day, the scan revealed a large mass located at the base of the cerebellum right near her brain stem.   I could not believe what was happening.   CHOP wanted to send a medical emergency helicopter out to Malvern to get her; I can’t explain how shocking that was to hear.  You would never have known anything was wrong with her.  Within 12 hours of arrival at CHOP, shock #2 - a 5 hour surgery to remove a tumor the size of a golf ball.  In the hours leading up to surgery, I asked the neurosurgeon several times…"could this end up being a false alarm, a fluke?" If you are a parent reading this, you will surely grasp the sheer horror of this situation.  My little Halle is getting brain surgery?  She was swimming at the YMCA yesterday!!

That was a horribly long 5 hours.  Everything else in life seemed so inconsequential.   Thankfully, the surgery went well.  The tumor was sent to pathology, and 3 long days later, I was called into a conference room at CHOP.  It was there that I received the news from her oncologist that every parent dreads….that she had stage 2 brain cancer called medulloblastoma.

Things moved very quickly from there. I made a decision to go to Houston so that Halle could get special Proton Radiation Therapy, which was somewhat controversial at the time.  Halle and I spent the summer there living at a Ronald McDonald House in the medical hub. Living there in such a supportive, family environment under such stressful circumstances was a Godsend.  In October 2009, we returned home to our own beds in Philly, and she began chemotherapy at CHOP.  Halle finished her treatment a year later in October 2010. To celebrate her final treatment, we headed straight to the Phillies game from the hospital. Halle made it through all of this!

We are on the other side of this nightmare and thanking God for blessing us.  There have been so many challenges for Halle along the way. She still has issues…ongoing health concerns with hearing, metabolism, and growth, all part of cancer’s “late effects”.  She has been a champ through it all and she continues to amaze me with her strength and spirit.  We have also been blessed with supportive family and friends praying for her all over the world. We have been helped so much by CHOP, family, dear friends, our church congregation, and other non-profit organizations. We have learned over the past 6 years is how incredibly kind and generous people can be.  You never think something devastating is going to happen to your family. If it does, there are wonderful people in the world and committed organizations like Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to hold your hands and help you get through it.

Written by Amy Josef, Halle’s Mom
Updated: July 2015