[MUSIC]
>> Sophia started complaining about double vision.
So, you know, we thought it was an eye issue,
just a regular, you know, she needed glasses type of thing.
>> I had never had double vision before and something just didn't feel right.
>> We went from one eye doctor to another eye doctor and finally ended up in Boston.
And saw a specialist, so had an MRI done,
diagnosed her after the MRI with an abnormal growth.
They did a biopsy and found that it was
a malignant tumor.
They just didn't know, you know, much about it, what grade, and what needed
to be done, so at that point, they diagnosed her as having clival chondrosarcoma.
She was told that it was pretty much an
inoperable situation and proton B radiation was her best option.
>> Sophia's tumor was located in the superior aspect
of the clivus and extended behind her left carotid artery.
But her father I think was very surprised that my initial reaction, and my
initial recommendation after looking at her films
was actually for surgery prior to radiation therapy.
She was told that, you know, that this was an unresectable lesion and
that it was too dangerous to actually have surgery to remove that particular lesion.
Maximal surgical recession optimally growths total recession, followed by
proton beam radio therapy, generates the best long-term survival.
We've spent significant amount of time, both in person, as well as by
email and phone discussing the pros and cons of each of these options.
And I have a daughter at home, so I get what he was going through.
I mean, he has a teenage daughter and, and, and it's what I would do for my, for
my daughter and I shared that with him, and
I think that was important in his decision making process.
And I think the other component that was important to him was
the fact that it's, it was technically feasible to do from our perspective.
>> Doctor Gayly was really like compassionate, and he was just
a really nice guy, person, doctor everything so I knew that
when we left, I knew that I wanted to have my
surgery here cuz this is where I felt the most comfortable.
>> When patients come to be evaluated at Hopkins, we don't try to say
well, everything needs to be done in
one particular procedure or one particular manner.
It's really what's best for that particular patient
that has that particular pathology that we're dealing with.
This is a technically challenging area to get to through traditional approaches.
And for her particular tumor that this was
an ideal case for a transnasal endoscopic approach.
These approaches are done collaboratively with otolaryngologists and neurosurgeons.
>> Skull-based tumors are one of the most complex
things I think that otolaryngology and neurosurgeons do, and
at Hopkins we believe that the best way to
treat these are with an integrated team approach image.
We can bring people with expertise at
controlling the nose and controlling the brain together.
And we found that that gives the most successful outcomes.
>> Chondrosarcomas and primary bone tumors have a tendency to
invade and to grow into all little nooks and crannies
in that particular bone and really the goal of surgery
is to remove all of the abnormal tumor in that region.
Because her tumor was not one solid mass, but had all
of these little side collections of tumor, we elected to actually
do it in the inter-operative MRI scan, so that we would
know after the tumor resection we would do an MRI scan.
And we would know at the time during surgery whether or not there was any residual tumor.
>> I'm real happy with how things turned out and I think surgery went great.
So all in all I think things look very, very good, Sophia.
>> My double vision started going away.
So that was, that was, it's, obviously like, a big deal for me.
But once I started getting back into everything, it just felt like normal again.
>> Seeing somebody like Sophia be able to return back
to do basketball, go back to school have very little sequelas.
She was able to bounce back very quickly.
It's, it's very rewarding.
>> You know, I'm super excited, actually, that she is
back doing everything she was doing before this whole event started.
She presented with with double vision from involvement of this
tumor with one of her nerves that moves her eye laterally.
That has completely resolved, and she is, she is normal.
And that just makes me feel really terrific that we were able to provide her
treatment here that allows her to do that.
She had a challenging tumor and a challenging location and it's
just really rewarding to see her back living life to the fullest.
>> The doctors here, Dr. Isha and Dr. Gallio,
have just been amazing to me and my family.
And everybody, so it's been amazing experience.
[MUSIC]