Just recently I was reading posts at the forum I frequent:

Ozark Regional Forum

A long-time friend and co-worker was posting a new thread. As I read the post, my heart fell. I started crying like a little baby.

Scott was telling us that his 15 year old daughter has a brain tumor.

Haley is a beautiful girl who loves her life, her family, and most of all: Jesus!

Her faith was strong as they traveled to St. Louis for surgery. The surgery went well. Many, many people were praying. The school where Haley goes had a fund raiser to help. The doctor's now had to do follow up tests.

I will get to those tests below but first have a look at this sweet, precious girl. These are pictures of her as a baby and her holding her niece. 

The news wasn't good; Haley has a lung cancer and it is a very rare occurence.

You see, she has never smoked nor her immediate family members.

It is very hard for me to write all the paticulars so I will cut and paste the updates from Haley's website below.

I will add updates as they come: Please bookmark and check back:

Nov. 03, 2008

Haley has been having terrible head aches the last two weeks. This last weekend her vision has been blurred. We took her to the emergency room today here in Lebanon. They did a CT scan found something. They then did an MRI. They are sending us to St Louis Children’s hospital. All they have told us is that there is swelling on the brain.

Nov. 04, 2008

They found a tumor on the back of her brain about the size of a large egg. Dr.Smith Said that 90% of brain tumors in children are benign. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow to remove the tumor.

Nov. 05, 2008

Surgery went really good for Haley. Dr. Smith said he was confident he removed all of the tumor.

Nov.06, 2008

Dr. Smith told us he hopes the tumor is benign but that it did look more aggressive than that. They will know more when they get the pathology report back.

Nov. 07, 2008

Haley gets to go home today.

Nov. 08, 2008

We are concerned for Haley because of nausea and throwing up. This has the potential to be serious because the meds she needs to keep down are for anti-swelling of the brain and anti- seizure.

Nov. 10, 2008

The hospital called us to make an appointment Friday for another CT scan, MRI, and ultrasound of the thyroid.

Nov. 12, 2008

Haley is doing much better today. She has regained her strength and has not had to take pain medication for her surgery. And she got to wash her hair for the first time in 10 days. She is very happy about that.

Nov. 14, 2008

Haley got to see the children’s Onocologist , Dr. Shinoy today after all the tests. The news was very scary. The tumor was cancer, and not made of brain tissue so it had metastasized from another organ in the body. Also they found multiple tumors in the lungs, lymph nodes, bone and there was fluid build up in her heart caused by one of the tumors close to the heart. They suspect thyroid as the primary cause of the cancer, but they can’t find anything out of the ordinary in the thyroid. We are going to see a thyroid specialist in the adult hospital (Jewish Barns) Nov18.

Nov. 18, 2008

Today Dr.Hoaghy (ENT Specialist) performed another ultrasound and said the thyroid looked clear to him as well. So he did an ultrasound guided needle biopsy on the tumor on her lymph node. He said it would take 3 to 5 working days to get the pathology report. They are trying to see if the cells are still consistent with thyroid cancer. He stated that the lesions in the lungs appeared to be shrinking since the ultrasound performed last Friday and that there did appear to be fewer lesions. He said it was possible that there was some healing taking place.

Nov. 24, 2008

Follow-up with Dr Smith (Neurosurgeon) – released to go back to school and to drive. Ok to get exercise.

Nov. 25, 2008

The hospital called and made an appointment for Wednesday to do a full body P.E.T. scan.

Nov. 26, 2008

Had PET Scan, met with lung specialist (Dr. Patterson). Dr. Patterson informed us that the primary tumor (or the origin) was in the lung and that surgery was not an option at this point. Next we saw Dr Hoaughy (ENT Specialist) who showed us the PET scan that showed a large tumor in the right lung, numerous small tumors in the left lung, and areas in the lower spine. This is the same doctor who told us the lesions were shrinking on Nov 18. Now he informed us the primary tumor is over one inch in diameter. Dr. Shinoy needed to discuss with the adult Onocologist, Dr. Baggstrom to determine who needs to continue treatment with chemotherapy &/or radiation due to the rarity of this type of cancer and Haley’s age. It was decided that Dr Baggstrom would be the treating physician. Appointment was made for Dec. 2 and would not consider an earlier appointment due to the holiday.

Dec. 2, 2008

Met with Dr. Baggstrom – Diagnosis - Stage IV Non Small Cell Lung Cancer. Told us this is incurable but there are positive things such as Haley’s age, gender, general health, non-smoker, and no presence of symptoms. Only treatment - Chemotherapy- Radiation cannot be done at this time because Chemo increases chances of bleeding in the brain. It was recommended to do 6 rounds of Chemotherapy – once every three weeks for 18 weeks. The drugs used will be Cisplatin and Pemetrexed. They will do two rounds and redo the CT Scan to see how the tumors are responding. Haley is not eligible for clinical trials because she is not 18. Dr. Baggstrom told Haley she can choose to fight this aggressively with the Chemo, choose to have no treatment and only get help with pain management in which she would have a few months, or reevaluate after two rounds of Chemo and decide whether to keep fighting. First treatment scheduled for Friday. Had to get B12 shot and start taking Folic Acid to protect healthy cells while taking Chemo. Dr. Bagstromm agreed to contact St. Jude’s in Memphis and MB Anderson in Houston to see if it would be beneficial for them to evaluate the case.

Dec. 4, 2008

Dr. Bagstromm’s nurse called to tell us St. Jude’s could do nothing different and Houston had received the information but had not responded so Chemo starts tomorrow.

Dec. 5,2008

Haley had her 1st round of treatment today without any complications or sickness. Next round will be on Dec. 23rd

Dec. 8, 2008

We took Haley to the pool today in atempt to get some exercise. She did have fun. But when we took her out to eat afterwords she got sick as soon as she smelt the food. They told us smell could trigger nausea. Boy did it. We have been fighting it every since.

Dec. 9, 2008

Haley has been taking has prochlorper and Lorazepam for nausea and they work great, but I can't get her to eat or drink. Nothing sounds good, and the smell of food makes her sick.

Dec. 10, 2008

Haley has been a little better today. She has drank one 16 ounce bottel of water. Eat half of a chocolate pudding. And has been eating sonic chopped ice. And some applesauce with suger. The sonic ice was cool, she was craving it, so I went to sonic and they gave us a bag! God Bless Lebanon Sonic! We found a awsome site www.inspire.com It is a forum of cancer survivors and care givers. Talk about a big help, they have been where Haley is and had alot of advise to help us get through this part of chemo. Also they helped me convince her that I was not the devil for tring to get her to eat and drink.

Dec. 11, 2008

I took Haley to the local clinic to get some fluids in her. The Ensure was a hit for her she has drank two of them already. She also ate patatoe chips , she seems to be feeling much better and full of energy. Her spirits are very high today. I think she was afraid she was going to be sick much longer. She got to go watch her school quire perform tonight.

Dec. 12, 2008

Today the MRI showed another tumor forming on the back of the brain in a lower spot already. Doc said it was aggressive. They now want to stop chemo and start radiation next week on the whole brain.

Dec. 16, 2008

GOOD NEWS!!!!!!

The radiologist oncologist went back to review all the MRI’s on Haley. He noticed on the MRI done the day of the surgery, that this new tumor was already present, just not as visible. That is good news.

The Neurologist missed this. He thought the cancer was very aggressive and had developed a new tumor and grown to .7mm in two weeks. So what this does for us is allow them to treat the area of the brain with the tumors with a gamma knife radiation instead of whole brain radiation. A lot less risk of permanent side effects with a gamma knife. Also, don’t have to postpone Chemo as long. A gamma knife is a one day treatment. Not every day for two weeks.

So we go back on Dec. 31^st for the radiation and resume chemo Jan. 6^th.

Dec. 31, 2008

Haley had her scheduled gamma knife radiation today.

This sometimes takes all day but they had no other patients today so it allowed them to concentrate only on Haley.

After the treatment she had a bad headache, then a little nausea but in about an hour all that was gone and she’s feeling much better now.

Jan. 6, 2008

Haley had round two today with chemo. Everything went well. She was really tired. We met a nice young lady who was sent to us from the childrens hospital to help Haley find things to do while taking Chemo. She came up with some neat thing. She is going to get Haley some music to listen to and crafts to work on for future appointments.

Jan. 9th 2008

Took Haley in for fluids today. She hasn't took on enough fluids again. It hasn't seem to work as effective as before.

Jan. 11, 2008

Haley is doing much better today. She went to church both morning and evening. First time she'd been out since Chemo.

Jan. 13-16, 2008

Back to school!! She is so happy to be back

Jan. 28th, 2008

 I just got back today from taking Haley
to Chemo (Sploosh, new code name for Chemo because Haley HATES the word
Chemo)in St. Louis. On the way home traffic all but stopped because of the
snow, so we took the next exit and stayed at a motel. This turned out
to be an awesome time with my girl. We went swimming in the pool. Haley
just had a blast. And I'm telling you she just got done receiving her
Sploosh . Up tell not the Sploosh ether made her super sick or
too tired to walk, and we were swimming!

I know that I have many Christian friends here at hubpages; Please fall on your knees for Haley. Please also pray for the rest of this family.

God in your ultimate mercy please heal Haley and give both her and her family the strength to endure this trying time. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Below is a special video by Big Daddy Weave. They played a concert here in Lebanon, Missouri not long ago and they dedicated this song to this sweet girl.

The link to Haley's website is below, if led to, please visit and give this family some uplifting words.