Malik's Fight

Saturday, 9 February 2013

AND NOW FOR SOME VERY GOOD NEWS!

A message from Malik's Father .......

Good Evening Folks!

Today was the most emotional day for me.. Why?You might ask,

I have been in tears for the better part of the day, and that thanerks to some really awesome doctors that are and have been dealing with Malik. Today he had another check-up scheduled, and although his counts were still on the down side, we had THE BEST news we have had in a long time!

I'm serious, I couldn't contain myself, and while trying to calm down and let the news sink in, and giving thanks to Our Father for His hand in all of this, I was deeply overwhelmed.

So, I guess I should share this Good News?

Today, Maliks doctors revealed that they are extremely happy with Malik's progress. So happy, that he will probably not have to complete the full treatment cycle they had planned for! They want to do ONE more session, which depending on his counts, might have to be split in two, but then, he IS FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They will then schedule another MRI and Lumber-punch, after that session, and then we will know if he is cancer free, or in the clear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am fighting back the tears as I write this out of pure joy! Its almost unreal...

The road ahead will be a challenge. He will have regular visits to his Dr, and there are talks of physio, and we will have to get him back to where he was physically when all of this started. The good news is, he is well on the road to RECOVERY!!!!!!!!!!

Praise God Almighty!

Thank you to each and everyone of you who have shown your support, prayed and sent their best wishes to Malik, they were and are sincerely appreciated.

I said in the beginning of the year, that this was going to be a Good Year, and so it is!!! Keep following us, and lets be the change!

The Proudest Father.

Carl Dentry

Saturday, 19 January 2013

Gathering the superhero's

"One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind."

~Malayan Proverb

WHAT AN AMAZING RESPONSE!

Malik's father, Carl would like us to thank every single person that has been in touch with us over the past few weeks and who continue to do so today. He is so grateful and totally blown away for all the support he has received after agreeing to let us tell Malik's story. Amazing people have reached out to Malik and people are asking what he needs and what they can do to help.

Everyone here at Malik's Fight are so touched and completely humbled to receive an amazing response via all forms of social media... we could never thank you all enough for helping to show your support in your well wishes and messages of encouragement! The power of emotional support is endless and we had some very special people leaving messages for him throughout this week.

We had some real super hero's fighting our corner these past few days and the response that has come from their hard work has been outstanding...

Malik has been offered free nutritional advice by a UK dietitian, assistance with some possible home schooling and some fantastic contacts regarding some fundraising we have up and coming. There are also discussions of possible meet and greets with some special sporting stars! A very kind soul has offered Malik a computer, along with some great educational games to keem him busy while he spends his days at home. All these small things add up. You don't have to spend a cent to offer your time and kindness to help someone else and we are so grateful to the people who have offered to help Malik and his family.

People have been tirelessly tweeting and re-tweeting to anyone and everyone they know and can think of and this in turn has helped us get a fantastic 231 people following Malik on twitter @maliksfight , an amazing 80 'likes' on Facebook (MaliksFight) and this blog has been read an astounding 1222 times!

These are some of the beautiful people and organisations doing outstanding work for us - from tweeting their hearts out and raising awareness of Malik's fight, down to the people that have reached out and gotten in touch with us to offer their help.....

THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER !!

There were some girls that put twitter and the internet under some intense strain over the past few days and we have a special thank you for them as well :)

twitter messages for Malik from all over the world ... you might recognize some of them!

" What an incredible battle you've been fighting Malik. Sending you love and best wishes from all the Branson family " - Richard Branson

We also got some great Re-Tweet's

Arno Carstens , Goldfish , V&A Waterfront , Sias du Plessis (5fm) . Elana Afrika , Lee Downs , Keegan Daniel , Heinz Winkler , aKING , Francois van Coke , Van Coke Kartel , Folofpolisiekar , Sakhile Moleshe (Goldfish) , Locnville , Matie FM , Marc Lottering , Derek Watts , Butch James , Shark World , Jandre Marais , Steven Sykes .....................................................

................................ Rainbows and Smiles , Pink Alice Band Campaign , Little Fighters Trust , Den Anke Restaurant, @race to recovery , @just plain twit , Primrose VECCPF , Build SA , Katerina's Kitchen............. and more comes in by the day.

There are so many people sending messages through so we will be updating our 'Thank You' blog's every few weeks so that we can try and acknowledge all the wonderful people and the love they send to Malik on a daily basis.

So hOw Is MaLiK fEeLiNg ?

Malik had his chemo this week and it was amazing to see so many messages of strength and hope.
Besides a few aches and pains, he is in high spirits and resting well at home.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support to Malik and his family as it has made a huge difference in their daily lives because they no longer feel so alone.

WHAT'S NEXT ?

We would really love to have some 'Malik's fight" T-Shirts printed. If you know of anyone who could assist us in making some t-shirts or wouldn't mind giving up some of your time for a good cause and helping us design something for Malik's t-shirts, please get in touch! We would love to hear from you!

"If you don't ask, you won't know"

Sunday, 6 January 2013

MISDIAGNOSIS NIGHTMARE.......

"What started with your average headache, turned into a complete and utter nightmare of pain, struggle and misdiagnosis. It has been described by his family as an emotional roller-coaster ride from hell."

In March 2012 Malik started to complain about headaches.... As he was a healthy 14 year old boy, no one gave it much thought and it was put down to the over use of video games and a typical case of your parents warning you that this is the result of too much TV. When his headaches began to get worse and turn to migraines, the red flags went up and his parents knew that he needed to see a doctor. Thus began their biggest nightmare. They were told that he was suffering from nothing more than sinus and hay-fever type problems and were sent home with the appropriate medication. After a few weeks and no improvement, they returned to the doctor where more tests were done and finally a referral was made.

Malik was sent to a local government hospital with suspected meningitis and the nightmare started to go from bad to worse. He was referred to the Children’s Hospital where they were turned away – his family was told that the hospital only treated children up to the age of 13 and the fact that Malik was 14, meant that they could do nothing for him..... By this time he was drifting in and out of consciousness and was unable to walk on his own. His migraines were so severe that he was not able to speak.... To say that his parents were beside themselves with pure and utter fear and stress would be an understatement. Malik's father rushed him to another local hospital where they were seen to after 30 min and testing was finally underway.

By now, Malik was barely conscious and was placed under heavy sedation. Everyone was still under the impression that this was the cause of meningitis and doctors continued their tests. After almost 5 days in the hospital, to the complete horror of his parents, he was diagnosed with ‘Clinical Depression’. Confusion now set in as his parents tried to understand how they had never attempted a lumbar puncture on Malik. This was what they thought was the normal procedure with suspected meningitis....... but Malik's parents had faith in the doctors and medical staff and trusted that they had his best interests at heart and had truly done everything they could do to find the problem. He was sent home with nothing more than the basic headache tablets.

Later that same night, Malik went into a seizure and his father rushed him to another hospital where the emergency doctors were at a loss for words and could not understand how and why the proper tests were not performed on him. His symptoms that he was presenting were so clearly the cause of something far more severe than 'Clinical Depression'! Something was drastically wrong with Malik and finally, his parents were assured that everything would be done to find out what was causing this. There was a roller-coaster of emotions; pure relief that something would finally be done but complete fear and dread as to what was causing their little boy all this pain and discomfort and most importantly..... Would he be okay?

Malik's pain was so severe that even while unconscious, he would scream in agony... calling for his father to help him. Those cries haunt Malik's father night after night and will most likely haunt him for the rest of his life – he was rendered powerless to help his little boy and his heart was broken. The doctors had managed to stop the seizures and finally Malik regained consciousness but he continued to experience severe pain. The head neurosurgeon was called in and informed of the series of events and he immediately scheduled a CT scan….. This is when their entire world and everything they knew was thrown into darkness.

The scan showed an enlarged growth on his brain situated very close to the spinal cord and nerves along with 2 very large masses of fluid buildup which was causing intense pressure on the brain, thus causing the migraines, seizures and unconsciousness. Malik's family was told that he had to have the fluid drained right away, if he was to have any chance of making it through the night... his parents were then told that had they not brought him in that night - he would not have made it. What was Malik's family hearing? The words were all too unbelievable and they were so overwhelmed.... their son was officially fighting for his life.

Malik went into surgery and had a drain installed to release the fluid. After 4 hours in theatre the operation was successful and he was taken into ICU to recover. As soon as Malik woke up, the doctors were totally astounded at how well he had recovered from the lengthy surgery and everyone was so pleased with the outcome. He was no longer in pain and discomfort and the doctors were happy. The worst was not over yet...... Malik's tumor still needed to be removed. Everyone from the head of Neurosurgery to the Professor of the Neuro Facility at University of Western Cape started planning the next procedure, which was going to prove to be somewhat of a challenge.

The operation was scheduled for the moment that Malik recovered from the first operation. His parents were gripped with fear on so many different levels. Their biggest fear was Malik not pulling through the next operation. Due to the location of the tumour, there was a possibility of paralysis, should anything go wrong. There was also a strong possibility that this was an aggressive form of cancer which had a good chance of spreading. Many of us worry about our children but I don't think anyone could imagine being in Malik’s parents shoes on the day of the operation. As he went into theatre, his parents tried not think of the worse possible scenario - they had never been as scared in their entire lives. All they could do was pray.

Finally, after another 4+ hours on the operating table, Malik came out of surgery. The doctors greeted the family with the brilliant news that they had managed to remove 95% of the tumour and that as they had anticipated, due to its location, they were not able to remove it all as it would most certainly have caused complications. The tumour was sent for testing and Malik was placed back in the ICU for recovery.

Being the little fighter Malik is, he astounded the entire medical team when he made another amazingly speedy recovery from the operation.

The tests finally came back and Malik's family got the news they were dreading. This was indeed the aggressive form of cancer that they were told about. He was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma which is an malignant tumour formed from poorly developed cells at a very early stage of life. They develop in a part of the skull called the posterior fossa, but may spread to other parts of the brain. Tumours that affect the central nervous system, are fairly rare and are more common in children They make up about 1 in 5 (20%) of all childhood brain tumours and is more common in boys than girls.

No one knows why these tumours form. Researchers are still trying to find possible causes.....

After a few more days in ICU, Malik was moved to a ward and was finally discharged after spending a little over a month in the hospital.

After a 6 week planning stage, Malik began treatment at Red Cross Children's Hospital, Oncology Unit. The family was placed in the care of the Head of Oncology, Dr Mark Hendriks who then scheduled the radiation and chemotherapy. After a few chemo sessions, the radiation commenced and took place from Monday to Friday for a full 6 weeks.

Malik has not been able to go back to school since this all started and it has taken a huge toll on him physically and mentally. Their lives now revolve around Chemo and Radiation, hospitals, doctors, nurses, medication and doctors’ bills….. but throughout it all, Malik has grown immensely and so have his parents. This has been a very long road and there have been more than a few unwanted hospital stays. The chemo had to be intensified in order to make sure the remaining section of tumour would shrink and not spread but it took its toll on Malik and had to be reduced due to the effect it was having. Unfortunately this is all part of the process and the fight he is fighting.

The doctors are confident that the tumour has shrunk and that it has not spread and an MRI will be scheduled to take place in the next few weeks. Malik will continue to receive chemo until August of this year but a lot of it comes down to how well his little body handles it. Once the tumour has gone and he has been given the all-clear, only then can everyone begin putting their life back together and Malik can continue being his happy, healthy, normal self again… At the moment, his parents can't even start thinking about the effects that all the chemo is having on him, as long as Malik continues to fight this disease, his parents will continue to do everything they can possibly, do to save their son's life.

All they have is faith that Malik will pull through this with flying colours, but no one should have to experience this alone.

We can be there as Malik takes on the fight for his life..... Please subscribe to out blog, follow us on Twitter, like our Facebook page and send as many messages of support that we possibly can.

GO MALIK!! WE ARE ALL BEHIND YOU!

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Wednesday, 2 January 2013

We are all behind you Malik

THANK YOU for taking the time to visit us here at Malik's Fight and wanting to find out more about who we are and what we are about. Malik is a 14 year old boy who has been fighting Brain Cancer and we are the friends of Malik and his family, that refuse to sit back and watch as they fight this battle alone.

WE WANT TO SHOW MALIK that there are people all over the world who know his story, who are thinking about him and want to show their support. We want to try and give the family a sense of comfort, and let them know that they are not going through this alone, that there are people behind them and most importantly, they are all behind Malik as he takes on the biggest fight of his life.

WE WANT TO TELL YOU MALIKS STORY and to tell you that Malik is just a boy who loves Wrestling, Bikes and playing cards. He has a 10 year old brother and his father is a Wrestler. He does beading and makes and sells bracelets and necklaces, he is only 14 and already becoming an entrepreneur. His life took a huge unexpected turn which totally blindsided their family and has thrown everything they know as 'normal' into complete darkness. They have to light a new path now in their lives and we don't want them to walk it alone. Every waking moment hinders on what the cancer decides to do on that day. Instead of spending Christmas at home like most other children, he spent his day in the hospital. No child should have to go through this at all and no one should ever have to go through any of it alone.

OVER THE NEXT FEW POSTS WE WILL TELL HIS STORY and then follow him on his journey. We would like to keep you posted on his progress, raise awareness about his condition, post video's from Malik and publish diary postings. We will be arranging some charity events and doing some local fundraising and we will keep you up to date with their successes as well as all the amazing responses we receive from around the world on twitter, facebook and email.

Some may wonder why they should take too much notice of his story as there are so many other children and adults that are in the same position.... we wish we could tell you everybody's story, everyone deserves to have their story told..... we can only tell you Malik's story....

ALL SMILES AS HE GETS READY FOR CHEMO :)