John J.Follow

JB (John Buchan) James just turned 8 in June. He is the middle child between Elizabeth and Harper and is in 2nd grade at Stratford Academy. He loves to play video games with his older brother and dad. He is a baseball and basketball fanatic. Aug 24th, a mass was seen on his CT of his brain.

JB is amazingly wonderful. His mind is always thinking, always analytical, and often times he is saying things I would expect an adult to say, and not an 8 year old boy. He loves baseball and basketball. I often cannot drag him into the house, as he wants to keep shooting baskets. He loves to read, play with his Pokemon or other action figures, and loves video games and TV.

The summer of 2009, towards the end of the summer and right at the start of 2nd grade, JB started having headaches. They usually occured right before a meal, or in stressful situations, so at first I thought nothing of them-- and just thought it was the stress of a new grade. However, he later started having them at night while asleep. And then one Sunday he took a 2 hour nap -- something he has NOT done since he was 2. Candi and I knew something was wrong and took him to afterhours pediatrics. The doctor could not find anything wrong, but seeing our concern, went ahead and thankfully ordered a CT.

That next day on August 24th, with a CT scheduled for 3pm, he threw up for the first time around noon, and then we got our CT at 3 pm, where we found out about his mass in his 4th ventricle. We packed a bag quickly and drove through the evening/night to get to Memphis, where we saw Dr. Boop and had surgery that Friday (August 28th) and then stayed in Memphis to be treated at St. Jude.

The diagnosis is medulloblastoma, and we are being treated by Dr. Amar Gajjar.