Life interrupted: Medulloblastoma

Anthony 's parents had been planning a family trip to the coast for months. Anthony, a precocious 4-year-old with excellent language skills, had been to the beach once before and could not stop talking about the upcoming trip. On a cool Friday morning in autumn, Anthony 's mother was busy packing the family 's things for their 2-week vacation. She had decided to take the day off from work while Anthony was in day care so that she could take care of all the last-minute details. When the day-care staff called to report that Anthony did not seem right, she figured he might have come down with an illness that would make the plane ride less pleasant, but she certainly did not anticipate that the vacation would never happen. When she arrived at the day care, she learned that Anthony had been having problems with balance all morning and had fallen several times. She also noticed that his eyes were moist and that his head was tilted to one side. Tears are falling from my eyes, Mommy, said Anthony with only a slight hint of distress in his voice but still looking to his mother to somehow make it stop. Anthony 's mother felt her heart jump and quickly scooped up Anthony and shuttled him to the emergency department.