Who was Sadie?
Sadie was our daughter. At 15 she was diagnosed with a very malignant brain tumor. Despite radiation and chemotherapy the tumor continued to grow,
and she passed away 13 months later.
Why this website?
During Sadie's illness we scoured the Internet searching for information about brain tumors, treatments, and, once she was terminal, other people's final days.
All the personal stories we found were very comforting to us: not because they offered us hope, but because they helped us understand what Sadie was going through. This
site is our way of contributing to others walking this frightening path. We hope Sadie's site helps make the journey a little less lonely.
What kind of tumor did Sadie have?
We aren't sure. Her MRIs suggested glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), but her biopsy was inconclusive. After a second and third opinion, her medical team
concluded that she had either GBM or a supratentorial PNET. The biopsy seemed to favor PNET, and that's what they treated her for. Her post-treatment MRIs, and her ultimate outcome, seemed to indicate it was GBM after all.
Comment or question?
Feel free to contact us.
Home hospice
February 1, 2007
We called in reinforcements to help with sponge bathing (Sadie was barely leaving her bed by now) and round-the-clock medication:
three mornings and three nights a week.
An anniversary of sorts
February 6, 2007
Sadie made it a year past her first MRI. Bittersweet news, given her rapidly declining state.
Gathering speed
February 11, 2007
This was the last day Sadie would leave her bed. She had become increasingly dizzy and weak. She all but stopped eating and drinking.
Her vomiting increased; we raised her dexamethasone to 12 mg (from 9).
Sadie developed a wet, raspy voice; strings of mucus hung between her mouth and toothbrush. She hurt everywhere, but nowhere she
could point to. We started giving her acetaminophen by suppository to ease her achiness; she could no longer swallow the large pills.
February 17, 2007
Sadie's agitation increased almost daily. In an attempt to improve her quality
of life and possibly buy her some more time, we increased her dexamethasone to 18 mg. It didn't help.
We started Sadie on fentanyl patches (morphine) for pain and oxazepam, a shorter-acting, milder cousin of diazepam
(Valium), to help her sleep.
February 19, 2007
The oxazepam and fentanyl helped only briefly; we had to make a middle-of-the-night pharmacy run
to pick up oxycodone (for pain) and temazepam (stronger than oxazepam). Sadie was restless and uncomfortable
pretty much all the time, despite our best efforts to drug her sufficiently.
For the first time in five months, she turned away the volunteer who came to play games with her
twice a week. She just wanted to sleep.
Though we didn't realize the end was so close, Sadie had entered her last 36 hours.