Tanner’s Journey

08/22/2025

Tanner got to do a very special event today with some of the football players at VT! So thankful for the love shown to our boy today! He was so excited that he got to design a shirt for a player, Darius Taylor, and that Darius designed him one!

Thank you to Carilion Children's and Virginia Tech Football for having us and hosting such an amazing event!

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Virginia Tech football players traded footballs for markers, teaming up with young patients from Carilion's Children Hospital to design t-shirts.

08/16/2025

Tanner has news for everyone! 🩶🎗️

08/16/2025

8/15 Update

Tanner has impressed his doctors and team today! He worked so hard for PT and OT! He wanted to show everyone how much strength he had with his walking today! (Not gonna lie, it made my mommy heart so happy to see him up and having fun with everyone today!)

He has gained enough strength that the team has gave us the go ahead and skip the rehabilitation hospital stay!! However, he will be working hard with The Play Hut during therapy and will hopefully continue on this uphill path of getting his strength back on the left side! He made a few trips around his hospital room and to the bathroom with assistance from his nurses, mom, and his walker!

There has been NO new seizure activity since 7am yesterday (8/14), so he got to get the EEG monitor off and you would have thought he won the jackpot with the smiles he had! But that smile was nowhere near the smile he had when they told us that we could possibly be going home tomorrow (8/16)!!

They did his swallow test today and we will have to monitor him as he eats and drinks. With the type of tumor he has and where it is located, he has been “silently” aspirating on some food and drinks.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your love and support for our boy! Your prayers are being heard and felt! 🩶🎗️

We love you all!

08/15/2025

Update on Tanner 8/14

We have had so much information thrown at us today about Tan and still some unknowns.

As Neurology had suspected, he is having seizures that we’re not catching or seeing. The EEG caught two last night, one around 9pm and one around 11pm. They done some medicine changes on him to see if that helps control the seizure activity while he is still being monitored on the EEG.

PT and OT came in this morning and worked with him. They got him out of bed and done some minor exercises with him. They will continue working with him while we are here and are discussing a rehabilitation hospital stay when we leave here. And then we will continue working with The Play Hut when we get back home.

Tanner is now in isolation because of an upper respiratory infection. He was negative for Covid, Flu, and RSV. But where he is more susceptible to infections and illnesses, they are taking extra precautions.

As of now, there’s no definite release date.

Please continue praying for our sweet boy.

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08/13/2025

Tanner has been admitted to Children’s National Hospital in DC.

He is progressively losing more and more control of his left side. He is constantly wanting to sleep and is having increased pain in his back on the left side. Sometimes when he is trying to respond to someone verbally there’s a delay from what he wants to say and it coming out.

He will be going for a sedated MRI soon Then they will be doing a long EEG (24+ hours) after that for concerns of having little seizures and we’re not catching them and it’s causing more of the left sided weakness.

Please pray we get answers and for some relief for our boy!

We love y’all. 🩶🎗️

07/29/2025

Today our sweet boy T is traveling to DC with his momma & sissy (for moral support ..& the chance of shopping of course lol). He will be having another MRI and then check ups with his care team.
We ask that everyone join in prayer and agree that we will see God’s miracles continue to show up. We know our boy is healed & just ask that you lift him up as you go through the next few days.
We are praying for safe travels, good reports, & the love of God to just travel with our boy everywhere he goes!💛

07/17/2025

Infusion #6! He’s doing so well with his infusions and is in such great spirits (now that he’s off dexamethasone , iykyk 🙌🏻)! Thank you to everyone for the prayers and support for our warrior! We love you all! 🩶🎗️

He has another MRI scan on July 30 in DC, please be in agreement with us that everything is shrinking and that we can space out infusions or stop them!

06/05/2025

It’s Infusion Day! He’s on infusion number 3! Prayers and good thoughts that Tan handles this one as well as he has the others! 🩶🎗️

06/03/2025

We are so blessed to live in our community! We can never thank everyone enough for everything they’ve done and continue to do to support our boy and us as we navigate through this journey! 🩶🎗️

05/22/2025

Infusion number 2 is underway!

Tanner is in great spirits today and is feeling well! Prayers he continues to do well with his infusions!

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05/15/2025

We are so appreciative of all the support of our sweet boy and us! We love you all! 🩶🎗️

05/13/2025

Our boy is home!

There was a lot of information thrown at us while we were in DC, so bear with this post as mom tries to get it all out for everyone.

When we arrived at Children’s National Hospital and was put in an ER room, he had a seizure lasting roughly three minutes. Thankfully his nurse was standing there with us still and went into full action for him.

In the ER, they done an ultrasound on his eyes to check for pressure and that was all NORMAL! They accessed his port and done bloodwork and everything looked good there.

We got to the room about 2am Friday morning, and he got set up on the continuous EEG monitor. He didn’t end up having any more seizures after the one in the ER, thankfully! Friday about 1 they took him for a “quick” MRI and at first they made momma’s heart drop because they said he had too much fluid and his ventricles were swollen, however, neurosurgery came in for a consult and rested our ease by telling us that it’s a good thing everything looks like that because that means, THE LESIONS ARE SHRINKING!!!!! It is shrinking!!

We didn’t get answers on why the seizures are happening but he got started on some new medication and everything seems good so far! No new seizure activity! He also had his first infusion of Avastin while he was in the hospital!

Please continue praying for our sweet boy and for us! We love you all!

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