Blayze's Story

Blayze was diagnosed with Gelastic seizures in April of 2013 when he was 5 years old. That’s when our Epilepsy adventure began. At the age of 10 he was re-diagnosed with LGS, a rested epilepsy syndrome. In September of 2020 Blayze did a routine MRI and that scan showed a lesion on his brain. It was later confirmed by radiology that Blayze does have a tumor in his right thalamus.

They are unsure what type of tumor it is at this point. The only way to really tell is to do a biopsy, but it’s deep in the central part of his brain, where it could affect A LOT of his main functions (even by doing just a biopsy). His Neurologist presented Blayze’s case to a team at Phoenix Children’s that included head of Nero surgery, head of oncology and head of radiology. After several tests, scans and meetings over the course of the last 4 months. It has been confirmed that the tumor has grown since September and they would like to see what percentage of his seizures could be caused by the tumor.

Blayze will be admitted April 20th at Phoenix Children’s to undergo a Stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG). This operation will take approximately 4 hours, they will be drilling 17-27 holes in his head and placing electrodes in targeted areas of his brain. He will remain in the hospital with the electrode leads in until at least the 30th. Once he does this and they can monitor his brain activity internally, they are hoping to get a better idea of how the tumor is and can affect him also to see if a biopsy of the tumors is worth the risk of the damage it can cause to his brain.