It's been 8 years since we brought Emmy to the hospital, hoping to get an answer to why she was waking up in the middle of the night with headaches, holding her head saying ‘owe’ over and over. She was only 4, hardly old enough to know what a ‘headache’ was, but when she refused to go to preschool (her favorite part of her day), we knew we had to bring her in. I show full storygoogled it. PS: Don't ever do that. But seriously, not likely a brain tumor as google said, not our little girl. It's probably a migraine or some sort of headache, we just needed some medicine. Once we got to the ER, they brought us to a room where I answered a few questions, then the nurse said ‘maybe her ponytail is too tight and that is causing the pain’. At this point, I knew I needed to be more firm about not leaving until I got an answer. After some pleading with the ER doc, he finally agreed to a CT scan. I will never forget him coming back into the room and fumbling with his password to the computer as I asked him if everything was okay. He finally answered and said ‘you need to sit down, there is a mass in her brain, it's cancer and we need to get her to Minneapolis Children’s right away’. WOAH. This was a lot to digest. And how was I going to tell Kyle, who was 4 hours north on a business trip? Fast forward a few hours that felt like days…… Emmy's Auntie Kaycee (a nurse at Gillette Children's) was notified and she made plans to get Emmy transferred over to Gillette Children's Hospital and set up with the best neurosurgeon, Dr Graupman. After a 3 hour MRI, our first piece of good news was the tumor was intact and had not broken off or traveled down her spine! YAY! But, because her tumor was pressing on her 4th ventricle in her brain, her spinal fluid was not able to drain appropriately, which led to a major build up of fluid in her brain: hydrocephalus, therefore explaining the headaches. Emmy was outfitted with a brain drain for 24 hours before surgery could take place. On Friday, April 8th, 2016, Emmy had a 6 hour surgery to remove her tumor. Our second set of prayers were answered when Dr. Graupman successfully removed her tumor. We waited anxiously (for two days, darn weekends) for our next set of answered prayers: the tumor was benign, no cancer! Truly blessed. Emmy spent the next 18 days in the hospital recovering. She had to learn how to walk and talk again. It’s crazy to think about, but she did not complain or whine as she went through numerous therapy and doctor appointments that summer and fall. We can't help but give back. We HAVE to help those that will unfortunately come after us, so they have a chance to have the same result as Emmy did. AND that is why we are so excited to participate in the MN Brain Tumor 5K! Every penny raised from this event will be used for brain tumor research. Please help by sponsoring Emmy today! If not for the donations and research that came before Emmy, no doubt Emmy would not have the amazing results she did! Please help Emmy make a difference for others! XOXOXO