Deanna is a beautiful and fun-loving 9 year old girl with amazing strength and an awesome attitude. Deanna was admitted to the hospital on Dec 29, 2009 after an MRI showed a tumor in the back of her head!! On Dec 30,2009 she underwent 9.5 hrs of surgery that successfully removed most of that tumor. The surgery left Deanna temporarily paralyzed on the left side. She has regained most of her movement but still wears an eyepatch to keep her eyes from crossing when she tries to focus. Sunday following the surgery we flew to St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee where Deanna has endured 6 weeks of radiation treatments. At the time of this writing we are back home on a 5 week break to allow the radiation some time to work before reporting back to Memphis on April 10th for Deanna's 4 months of chemo treatments. The timing of the break allowed us to be home for the St. Baldrick's event in Columbia, SC where I and all of "Team Deanna" will have our heads shaved on 3/20/10 to show our support for Deanna and to honor her tremendous courage.