Courtney Roby's Story
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Courtney Roby was diagnosed at the age of 16 with Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma. In July 2012 she had a procedure to relieve fluid that had built up on her brain and a biopsy of the brain tumor. Then, in August 2012, she had surgery for a tumor resection. They tried to remove her tumor, and she was in surgery for over 10 hours, but unfortunately, they didn’t even get half of it! Post surgery, Courtney began daily radiation in late December 2012, which lasted for 5.5 weeks.
Despite the radiation and attempted surgical resection, her tumor continued to grow but her oncologists decided to adopt a wait and watch approach with periodic MRIs. She still has headaches every day, double vision, and tremors, which cause her to shake all the time because her tumor is pushing on a nerve in the brain. After seeing continued growth of her tumor, Courtney and her family reached out to OSU James Cancer Center for a second opinion. In October 2013 Courtney had another MRI and MRV, which led her new doctors to decide it was time for another attempted surgical resection. Courtney had another brain surgery on November 22, 2013 to attempt to remove her tumor. They were able to remove over 90% of it. She is still recovering from her surgery and waiting to hear from her oncologists regarding a follow up plan of treatment. It is possible that there won't be any other treatments available. |
