GHS grad who survived brain tumor is organizing 5k run to raise awareness
In 2017, former Noble resident and Gainesville High School graduate Katelyn (Brantingham) Morris was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Now, six years later, she’s organizing 5k run/walk in order to raise awareness of the terrifying medical condition and funds for its continued research.
The “Go Gray in May 5k” will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 20, beginning on the Gainesville square. The cost to participate is $25 if registering before May 10 and $30 on the day of the event. Included in the registration fee is a t-shirt.
“Feel free to walk, jog, crawl or sprint this fun and challenging course through the Ozarks,” a post about the race says. Medals will be awarded to the top three finishers. To register, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/623310096277 or search for “Go Gray in May 5k” on Facebook.
Katelyn’s story
Just before Thanksgiving 2017, Katelyn’s lower back began hurting more than usual. The pain had been there for almost as long as she could remember but was nothing serious, she said. Just a dull, nagging pain down near her tailbone that would get a little worse after a vigorous workout or one of the 20-year-old college student’s almost-daily 5-mile runs. Katelyn had seen her family doctor about the ache and been to physical therapy, but the pain never really went away.
Then, about three weeks before Thanksgiving, Katelyn complained to her mother, Karen, that the pain was worse and somehow different. Now it was shooting sharp pains down her leg.
“We decided to go see Sally,” Karen told the Times. “She was new with fresh ideas, and she’s like family to us. So she understood all that Katelyn had been through.”
An appointment was made with Sally Ledbettter Hambelton, a newly credentialed nurse practitioner at the time at Regional Family Medicine in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and a long-time family friend. “Sally suggested Katelyn get an MRI,” Karen said. “We agreed, and Sally made some calls and got Katelyn in the very next day – Tuesday. Afterward, Sally called and said, ‘We see something. We want to do another MRI with contrast.’”
Baxter Regional Medical Center neurosurgeon Lucas Bradley, M.D., called the Brantinghams after reading the MRI results. “He said he saw a little tumor on Katelyn’s sacrum – a couple of centimeters – and was going to refer us to UAMS [University of Arkansas Medical Sciences] in Little Rock for the surgery. But in the meantime, he was going to do an MRI of her brain and the rest of her spine. He told us he wasn’t expecting to see anything, but they just do that to make sure.”
After undergoing the MRI, Dr. Bradley showed the Brantingham’s a picture of Katelyn’s brain. Nestled at the back of her head, in her cerebellum, was a perfectly shaped white mass, the size and shape of a small egg. “I’m sorry,” said Dr. Bradley. “We were not expecting this.”
Dr. Bradley told the family they needed to go to Little Rock as soon as possible, and that Dr. John Day was the best neurosurgeon at UAMS.
A few days later, the Brantinghams traveled to Little Rock and met with Dr. Day, who cleared his schedule so he could do the surgery a couple days later.
After the four-hour surgery, Dr. Day called Karen and her husband (Katelyn’s dad) Dan back to the recovery department. “He said he got it out, that it was the size of a small egg and he had to pick at it a little bit because it was really stuck,” Karen said. “He went on, saying she could have some facial weakness and vision problems because it was on the optic nerve. He’s going on and on about the surgery until I break in and ask, ‘Is it malignant?’’
Dr. Day smiled and said, “’I’m saving the best for last: NO.”
The mass was a pilocytic astrocytoma – a juvenile tumor that had probably been growing 10 to 15 years in Katelyn’s head.
On Dec. 27, 2017, Katelyn underwent surgery to remove the tumor on her sacrum, the bone just below the lumbar spine. Doctors believe that, in an extremely rare occurrence, a piece of the original tumor in her brain broke off and traveled down her spinal fluid and lodged itself on her sacrum. A pediatric neurosurgeon told Dr. Day during a conference that he had only heard of two other cases of this happening.
“Although the surgery resulted in a strenuous recovery and multiple side effects that I am still recovering from today, I am extremely fortunate. I am cancer free, tumor free, eventually returned to school and got to marry to my best friend,” Katelyn said. “In fact, I am graduating with my master’s degree in May to be a speech language pathologist with an opportunity to make an impact on the lives of patients with brain tumors, traumatic brain injuries, strokes and so much more. The prayers and support from my family, friends and community were/are astounding and I am beyond blessed and grateful for each of you and the impact you’ve had on my recovery. Unfortunately, many people are not as lucky as I was.”
Statistics
According to the National Brain Tumor Society 18,990 Americans will die from a malignant brain tumor in 2023, brain cancer is estimated to be the 10th leading cause of cancer death in 2023 for both males and females in all age groups, an estimated 5,230 new cases of primary brain tumors in children and adolescents will be diagnosed in the US in 2023, brain tumors are the most common cancer overall in adolescents ages 15-19 years in the US and pediatric brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death among children and adolescents ages 0-19 years.