Introduction
When our eight-year-old daughter Amelia was diagnosed with cancer in October 2004, my wife Tricia and I were nearly overwhelmed by fear for the life of our only child. After enduring years of misdiagnoses for her daily nausea and fierce headaches, the proper medical call was finally made on a miserable, overcast October afternoon. The awful challenge was whether she would live long enough for the truth of her brain cancer condition to matter. A malignant, mixed-cell tumor was located in the middle of her brain, and emergency surgery was ordered. She had just hours to live.
Her survival and recovery from the brain surgery was only the beginning of a long battle against cancer and all that goes with it. Amelia’s long journey has been aided by family friends, nurses, therapists, and lots of doctors.