According to punch, , Ifeoluwapo Isijola waits for a hospital that would accept him for the clinical trial treatment of his Grade three glioma brain cancer. He is thirteen years old.
On the Christmas Eve of December 2006, Ifeoluwapo was being groomed for the great season’s celebration with his family. His parents brought in the family barber to make him look good with a nice haircut. Earlier in the year and at different times, he had complained of headaches and uncomfortable pains in the head that kept him awake during the day and all night. But on that December evening, the barber applied some pressure to Ifeoluwapo’s head while cutting his hair and he went into sudden seizure.
The family rushed him to the hospital and after staying overnight there, he was diagnosed with a neck spasm. But the discomfort of headache did not leave him. Within weeks, Ifeoluwapo and his parents, Chris and Helen Isijola, made several visits to hospitals in search of answers to his persistent headache. Several visits later, an MRI was ordered and it showed a tumour in his brain.
The discovery changed the life of the 13-year-old boy and his family. He was admitted at the Duke University Hospital Cancer Centre, where aggressive treatment commenced. The doctors recommended immediate brain surgery to remove a part of the tumour to relieve pressure in the brain. The surgery was followed by a year of radiation treatment and chemotherapy. The aggressive measures suppressed the growth of Ifeoluwapo’s tumour for the next few years, putting his cancer in remission between 2011 and February 2014.
But mid February, the tumour became active and Ifeoluwapo once again began a long frustrating journey to Duke University for weekly chemo treatment and other medical therapies. He went through days of high-dose chemo and continually checked back into the hospital to repeat the entire process. His parents would drive him every week for forty five minutes, from their Raleigh residence to receive treatment at the cancer centre in Durham.
The struggle takes its toll on Ifeoluwapo’s parents, but they remain resilient in spite of the trials. His mother, Helen, summed up the courage to fight on, thus: “He (Ifeoluwapo) did not ask for this. We did not ask for it too. We are here but running from it or being afraid of this is not an option.”
Our prayers goes out to Ifeoluwapo and family, that the good lord will see them through this period
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