Gunner's Magic Train Offical Page

I don’t know the exact day of these pictures but I know it was diagnosis week. After leaving PICU we were placed on the 6th floor. Gunner’s room was at the end of the hallway and so as I went up and down the hallway 3-4 times, I had the realization......we were on the Cancer floor. Although, we had met with many doctors and I knew his diagnosis and I knew the survival statistics(0% by the way), it still had not sunk in. They never used the word cancer. We heard mass on the brainstem. We heard Diffused Intrinsic Pontine Glioma(DIPG) but never the word cancer. We heard have hope but know that it is not good. Then after several walks up and down the hallway a voice in my head said, “My child has cancer. Wait?! What?! This can not be! “

In this picture, meet Anthony. Gunner and Anthony would meet in this lounge room close to Gunner’s room and we would play games. In these pictures we are playing Candyland and Go Fish. It was these times that gave us some normalcy in the moment. Gunner was beginning to feel and look himself from the strong doses of steroids. It was a bandaid fix until we started the radiation treatments.

I have thought a lot about kids now having to go through being in the hospital with cancer or any other illness with all the covid scare and it saddens me even more. We would never have made it through the week on this floor without making friends or speaking with other parents going through this similar crisis. I’m sure if we were in this hospital on this floor now we would not be in this lounge playing games with other patients. We would probably have to stay in our rooms. Sad, sad, state we are in.

I’m sorry to say I can’t remember what type of cancer Anthony had but he passed away as well. I don’t forget the families, their faces....they are in my heart and mind so often. I’m so grateful I met Anthony and his mother. There was another family that we met on this floor and I still follow her mother. It’s a club you don’t want to be a part of but you meet some amazing people in it.

***May is National Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Pediatric brain cancer is one of the deadliest forms of childhood cancer and impacts thousands of children every year. We are Going Gray for the month of May in support and solidarity with the many who battle brain tumors every year, and especially with those children and parents who deal with this disease every day. It sure is tough to go through.

Gunner went through radiation treatment for his tumor. He lost his hair just behind the ears where the radiation beams targeted through his head. The radiation changed a few things about Gunner. His hair was darker when it came back in. His eyes also changed color. They were also darker.

It’s hard to believe that Gunner would be gone 3 months from this picture. This picture was taken the summer after the radiation treatments were finished up. It seemed that the tumor caused Gunner trouble holding his head up and it caused his eyes to look out of the top of his head. We were living in Arizona receiving an holistic treatment and decided to go to Disneyland for a break. We loved it there and Gunner really did a great job traveling and spending a few days at Disneyland. He would tire easily but we would just get a wheel chair to help out. We made some fabulous memories. The radiation/holistic treatments bought us 11 more months with Gunner. I thank God for that time.

May is brain tumor awareness month.

And awareness is sorely needed.

Why? Because brain cancer is one of the most deadly and expensive cancers and brain tumor research is chronically underfunded.



Anna Mae Henry Jon Pope Jon Pope Joan E Reynolds Gillespie

It makes me so sad to see this sweet little face and know that he had to suffer going through a brain tumor. I think of all the littke kids and big kids having to go through cancer before Gunner, during the time of Gunner’s illness and after Gunner and it just makes me sad. It’s a hard road to travel and knowing what I do it’s so hard to see kids, parents, siblings, families walk that similar road today. We must do better. 😞

May is brain tumor awareness month.

And awareness is sorely needed.

Why? Because brain cancer is one of the most deadly and expensive cancers and brain tumor research is chronically underfunded.