Aahana was born on November 27, 2016 with no complications. She was a healthy newborn and a happy infant who loved singing, being kissed and oh the cuddles !

Aahana went for an ultrasound appointment for the brain on July 21 2017, after a history of about 1.5 months of progressive vomiting, worsening feeding and lethargy.

Aahana was diagnosed with a posterior fossa mass on that untrasound appointment. Aahana was admitted to BC Children's hospital immediately and an MRI done on July 24th 2017. The MRI confirmed a 4.8 x 4.8 x 5.3 cm solid and cystic mass located centrally within the posterior fossa. This mass of tumor was pushing the cerebellum, and was resulting in bowing and compression of the brain stem. Given Aahana's age, this was a fairly large, solid tumor.

The tumor's features were most suggestive of a higly malignant type such as atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor. At least two intraspinal tumors were also confirmed, indicating a metastatic disease.

In most cases, a biopsy is done to confirm the type of tumor before prognosis can be outlined. But in this case, irrespective of whether it was a rhabdoid type tumor or a CNS embryonal tumor, we were told that the prognosis is going to be poor. Given the malignant nature of the tumor and the fact that it had already metastasized, the doctors told us that Aahana will die with or without treatment..

Why Share

We want to share our story, Aahana's story here in hope that we can hopefully help support any other family facing the tough choices like we did.

We also hope to share some resources that helped us sail through this journey as a family, as parents of another energetic 3-yr old asking at least a million questions a day.

You can reach out to us by email a..@gmail.com, if you like.