 Christmas was always Kelsie's favorate time of year but not this year. It was three weeks before Christmas when my sister Debbie first noticed something was very wrong with her beautiful first born 5 yr old little girl. Kelsie, a normally strong and active child, suddenly began to lose co-ordination walking into walls, falling over or just sitting staring into space and drooling.Then came the severe, splitting headaches along with vomiting. Thats was when she rushed her to the doctor. The doctor diagnosed migraines thus dismissing Debbie's fear of a more deadly illness 'A Brain Tumour". Migraine treatment and a change of diet did little for Kelsie and this forced Debbie to DEMAND a Cat scan - this time, she consulted another doctor. "No cause for alarm she was once again told!! When they did the scan they saw a little shadow.The doctor said he was not overly alarmed - 'its only a shadow'. Most of us may have sigh a breath of relief and dismiss our fears of the worst...After all he was the specialist who is trained in this field. Well not my sister...she is stubborn as hell and thank God for that!!! She went on to demand further investigation which took us to Trinadad for a MRI( Magnetic resomedical imaging using the nuclear magnetic resonance of portions of the body). It was then and only then did we find out the dreaded truth! Kelsie had a brain stem tumour the size of an egg. After taking the results back to the so called specialist imagine Debbie's reply to him when he said'as I suspected its a tumour' Yea right!!!! That was when Debbie decided that this is it ....She was to take control and to hell with anyone else. 
This was the begining of 6 months of hell. Everything happened so fast that we didn't really have time to think. One minute we were decorating the house for Christmas the next minute we were flying off to Miami so Kelsie could get radiation. I don't know if anyone has seen a child going through radiation but believe me it was heart breaking to see someone you love lying on a bed with a white mask over her face which was attached to the bed with nuts and bolts to keep her from moving. It tore me up to watch tears trickle down the side of the mask as she beg her mummy to please make them stop! Why should a child so kind, so loving and so innocent have to go through this?? That is a question I have asked myself a million times WHY??? I prayed every night for god to take the tumor away from Kelsie and give it to me. She had so much to give to the world, more than I could ever give I am sure!! But alas no can do...Kelsie a 6yr old little girl has a Brain stem tumor the size of an egg, growing at such a pace that even the doctors were surprised!! They didn't think she would make it through radiation and, in all honesty, neither did we. She surprised doctors once again when she recovered really well, and in a matter of about four weeks of radiation she was able to walk by herself(Not for too long, though) She basically was back to normal again, apart from the fact she couldn't use her left arm and had to drag her left leg when she walked. The doctors had give her a year and a half to live but we were trying everything.We kept the hope that she was going to make it through this even if the odds were against her. She came back home and was doing really well.  On March the 19th Kelsie had the biggest Birthday Party ever all her friends from school were there and so many others who's hearts Kelsie had touched over the past 6 yrs. Everyone wanted to be part of what might be Kelsie's last Birthday Party, at the time I have to admit I didn't think like that, I truly beleive that God would have saved her from this demon and make her well....I still don't believe she has really gone and I will that I will never see her lovely face again. Its around about then we heard about this new drug on the market called "Temozlomide." This drug causes the cancer cells to self-destruct and is to be taken 5 days a month as a tablet form, which is so much easier on a child. So it was decided a trip to England was in order. It was the end of April when Kelsie, her Mother and Granmother went to England . They decided to visit family while they were there too. Family that have never met Kelsie. Everything went great she underwent tests to see if she would be able to take the drug and was in Whitehaven (Cumbria) visting family when 2 days before she was due back she started vomiting and had to be rushed to hospital. The doctors said that things didn't look good for her and that she wouldn't be able to travel as planned. They basically told my Mother there was not much hope for Kelsie and that the tumor was still growing at a tremendous rate. The doctors told my sister to raise her dose of steroids, which she did. She was able to go back to my Aunts home within a day even though she still wasn't able to walk around much and slept most of the time. She needed a air ambulance to get her back home to Barbados, which I may add costs over $60,000.00 US dollars!!!!!!!!! The insurance refused to cover this cost due to the fact so they say my sister didn't ask their premission to take Kelsie to England. Tell me why she need to ask them to take her child off the island??? Great way to get out of paying. The flights were complimentary, the doctors visits in England were paid for by the Cancer Society. So what was their problem???? That was the first thing she had asked them to pay for. The doctors in England also refuse to give Kelsie premission as they didn't want to get sued. They did however say if Kelsie undergoes the first treatment of the drug "Temozlomide" there in England then and only then will they be able to give premission for her to travel. In a way it seemed better for Kelsie to do her treatment in England, at least they knew what they are doing..out here in Barbados we only have two doctors who deal with Brain Tumors...The same two I have talked about already!!! Within two days of the drug Kelsie went into a coma. Why?? Well this is it....the so called miracle drug caused it. Yipe!! The drug causes the swelling which is around the tumour to swell before it begins to shrinks it. As the tumour was already back to the size of an egg, the brian could not with stand any more pressure against it causing Kelsie to go into a coma. Something the doctors in England forgot to tell us??. They gave Kelsie a matter of days before she would die. The nurses and doctors in Whitehaven Hospital were GREAT!, they took care of not only Kelsie but the family too. I was there within two days and I thank God I was able to spend her last days with her. Our beautiful little girl died on the 3rd of June She tried her hardest to get well for us, she wanted so much to please her Mummy and stop her from crying. I remember her telling her Mother..." Please do not cry mummy, I promise I will get better for Christmas". She told me once that she wishes she was like me, That when I get a headache I can take a tablet and it goes away....when hers will not'. I remember watching the pain in her eyes when she saw her baby sister running around and when she tried to follow her she would fall down. But you know what? She is doing all that and so much more, she is in heaven right now watching over her baby sister and wiping away her Mothers tears. She was an angel on earth as she is in heaven. Kelsie we want you to know we love you Babes and every night we watch you as you are the first star to come out at night, you shine the bightest of all. Thank you for caring enough to learn about Our little angel. God Bless to all. I would like to share with you another story of a little boy who also had a Brian Stem Tumor. Jacob. Jacob is one in a million he overcome this demon!!    
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