syra gonzales

June 2020

The day after Halloween Syra wasn't feeling well and over the next couple of weeks, she got worse. She only wanted to sleep and wouldn’t eat or drink for me. When I finally would be able to get her up, she would say her head was hurting. I thought maybe she was dehydrated. I took her to the closest emergency room and with a CT scan they discovered a large tumor on her brain. They sent her to Doernbecher at OHSU where she underwent almost a 13 hour surgery the following day to remove the tumor. We found out that it was an Ependymoma grade 3. She has been through 6 weeks of radiation therapy to take out any possible cancer cells left behind. Unfortunately, the radiation has caused her to develop radiation necrosis. This has caused her to not be able to use her left side like her right side. It’s almost like she had a stroke. She does physical therapy twice a week. She will be starting Hyperbarric chamber in hopes to get some improvement on her motor skills and walking. She has been such a trooper and rarely complains about what she’s gone through. She also knows that she is my hero forever. She is so silly and absolutely loves making people laugh. She is not alone. I will be by her side throughout this journey.