My son was just diagnosed after his second birthday with a pilocytic astrocytoma brain tumor. We are devastated. We've been at Children's in Milwaukee since June 29th. Here is our story: June 29th - Diagnosis Easton has not been himself for the past 3 weeks. His appetite and drinking kept decreasing. He was very lethargic and disinterested in all of his toys. He kept grabbing his head and saying owie. After a few trips to our local Dr we ended up going to St. Vincent's last night to try and get some answers. The answers were not what anyone was expecting. Easton has a brain tumor in the center of his brain, that's pressing on his hypothalamus. Easton and I took a helicopter late last night to Children's in Milwaukee. Jake and his parents drove down behind us. His tumor is a low grade pilocytic astrocytoma. We will be going through a year of chemotherapy with multiple trips to Milwaukee from Marinette. He will need MRI's and eye-exams every 3 months during his chemo treatment. His Neurofibromatosis is too blame for this tumor. He has NF Type 1. This means that the protein in his DNA doesn't stop cells from multiplying, so tumors can pop up at any time during his life now. They mostly grow along the nerve lines. We pray this never happens again, but the future scares me. Easton has a shunt placed in his brain for the hydrocephalus (swelling in the brain). Next week he will get a G-tube for feeding (he keeps vomiting out the NG tube) and he will get a mediport placed.