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Oregon Family Faces Dual Cancer Nightmare as Mother and Son Diagnosed Simultaneously
An Oregon family is navigating an unimaginable crisis after both a mother and her young son received cancer diagnoses on the same day. The McRae family’s lives have been irrevocably altered in a single month, as husband and father Jake McRae shared with local media.
“Being helpless, like I can’t do anything for them. That’s probably the hardest part,” McRae told KDRV.
Just last month, the McRaes were living a typical life with their three young children. However, their world was upended when 4-year-old Jamon began experiencing severe headaches.
“Our 4-year-old started complaining of headaches. I mean, they weren’t terrible. But they kind of ramped up for the next few days and became pretty bad,” McRae explained.
Surgeons at Stanford performed a grueling 15-hour operation on Jamon, nearly tripling the expected time, to remove the majority of a tumor discovered in his brain. Yet, the subsequent pathology report delivered the devastating news every parent fears.
“Initially, they were thinking it was a benign one, and the pathology came back on the 5th, saying it was cancer, an aggressive malignant type of brain tumor,” the father recounted.
Jamon now faces a second major surgery, followed by six weeks of daily radiation therapy and months of chemotherapy. His prognosis could significantly improve if surgeons are able to remove the remaining tumor.
“The prognosis for him is not fantastic. Currently, it’s like at about 50%, but, you know, if they can get all the tumor, it goes up to 70%,” McRae stated.
Adding to the family’s immense burden, Jamon’s mother, Britney, received her own cancer diagnosis on the very same day as her son.
“The exact same day that we met with or established with oncology for my 4-year-old, she established oncology with her oncologist, like the appointments were an hour apart,” McRae revealed.
Amidst caring for Jamon – which includes managing his feeding tube, helping him relearn to walk, and preparing for weeks of treatment in California – the parents are also tending to their two other young children.
Jamon was briefly able to return home from the hospital to visit and help decorate for Christmas before heading back to California for his second significant surgery this week. Britney has also since begun her chemotherapy treatments.