The first days

Derek turned 8 the end of October 2015. He was a happy healthy boy enjoying life to the fullest. Little did we
know in about 3 weeks his and our lives would be change forever.

The week before Thanksgiving 2015:
Derek started to complain about a mild pressure or a small headache behind his eye. Our family has a history of
migraines and bad allergies, so we assumed it was starting with him now too. After some allergy meds and
some pain relief, Derek was good again. The mild pressure returned later that week and we repeated the process
again. But this time we started to think about getting him into the allergist.

The week of Thanksgiving 2015:
Tuesday of that week,
Derek started to complain of an upset stomach. It appeared to be the stomach flu. He was tired and wanted to
lay down. So he did.

The day before Thanksgiving,
Derek was able to eat a little more today, but he was still very tired and he did not want to sit up. He would bury
his head in a blanket and he just wanted to be still. But it was obvious that his stomach was not right.

Thanksgiving day,
Derek was extremely fatigued this day. He kept his face buried in a blanket because light was bothering him.
His stomach was very sensitive and he did not want to eat or drink much at all. We assumed this was going to
be his "bad" flu day and the next day he would be better. But by this day we were getting suspicious because
besides the upset stomach, massive fatigue, and head pressure, he had no other flu symptoms. No fever, no body
aches.....
The only other symptom and it was quite strange was he only waned to be horizontal. He even asked me to
carry him horizontal. I assumed it was because of the upset stomach.

The day after Thanksgiving, Friday Nov27th.
He woke up this day the same as he was on Thanksgiving, upset stomach, extremely sensitive to light, always
wanted to be horizontal (if Derek ever sat up, he would vomit). He still did not wanting to eat or drink and still
was very fatigued with the continued pressure behind his eyes. By this point we were getting worried about him
being dehydrated and the lack of food.
His condition was not getting better and we were rapidly thinking it may be something other than the stomach
flu.
When he woke up, I insisted that he try and eat some organic chicken broth. After explaining why, Derek
agreed and I went and made some for him to eat. I prayed over him at this point for God to heal Derek. When I
came back to his room with the broth I was about to feed him, but he said he needed to go to the bathroom. I
was helping him get out of bed but before he was able I knew something was very wrong. Derek experienced
what was obvious to me as a seizure. It was not the wild shaking kind of seizure, but one where he tightened all
his muscles at once and his eyes shot wide open and he was not there. Later I learned this was called a tonic
seizure.
In the kindest yet most urgent way I could, I contacted his Mom to come home, because we needed to go to the
hospital, now.
We intended to go directly to the larger hospital, but after backing out of the driveway and driving about two
houses down, Derek puked 3 times and we decided to go to the local ER.
Once there, they gave him fluids, that did help, but he was still not right. Next they checked for neurological
problems and they found none. And after about 2 to 3 hours, they decided to give him a CT scan.
A nice nurse asked his sister if she wanted to do something out of the room. And the doctor walked us down the
hall. I turned to my wife and said, “something must really be wrong”. They showed us the scan results and it
was obvious that Derek had something large in his brain that should not be there and it was blocking the brain's
fluids to drain properly.
We left the local ER via an ambulance en route to a Hospital better able to handle him.