‘Mystery Girl’ still waiting for answers from doctors
After three major brain surgeries, 10-year-old Brook-Lynn Ryan and her family are hoping for the best
They call her the Mystery Girl.
At only 10 years old, BrookLynn Ryan has spent the last four years battling brain tumours. She’s undergone three major brain surgeries, the most recent being an eight-hour Craniotomy Translabrynth Surgery at the McMaster Children’s Hospital on Monday.
Amanda Lake, Ryan’s mom, said doctors labelled her the Mystery Girl because while so many problems have occurred in her brain, they can’t find a connection.
“It’s not one thing that’s connecting [it],” Lake said. “It’s all separate things, that don’t relate to each other.”
Ryan was born with Chiari Malformation, a condition which caused massive headaches starting when she was just two years old.
At six years old, she had her first major brain surgery which left her with a large scar down the back of her head. The Chiari Malformation Decompression Surgery removed her C1 vertebra, lowered part of her skull and lifted her brain.
Only a year later, problems started up again.
Ryan was diagnosed with Inter Cranial Hypertention and Papelldema which is swelling in the brain and behind the eyes.
Ryan underwent a second brain surgery in 2017, which offered relief for a short time.
Then, in December, her face started to droop and she lost hearing in one ear.
After numerous MRI’s and cat-scans, doctors found two brain tumours. One of the brain tumours is in the centre of the brain, and does not appear to be causing any issues.
The second, an acoustic neuroma tumour, is responsible for Ryan’s loss of hearing, and doctors suspect it’s responsible for the drooping in her face, Lake said.
Lake, who described her daughter as the “bravest little girl” said Ryan was relaxed but ready for answers as she headed into surgery on Monday.
“I want to get better,” Ryan told her mom. “I want to start feeling better.”
The surgeries are also taking a toll on Lake’s eight-year-old son, Dallas. “He doesn’t understand why his sister keeps having to go to the hospital,” Lake said.
Monday’s surgery didn’t give the family the answers they were hoping for.
Doctors began to remove the problematic tumour, but had to stop due to a hole in Ryan’s mastoid bone. Additionally, the surgery caused a spinal fluid leak, meaning more time spent recovering in the hospital, Lake said.
The doctors also conducted a biopsy of Ryan’s facial nerve, and Lake said the wait for results will be another three weeks.
She said financial strain of a life in and out of the hospital hasn’t been in easy.
A single mom of two, Lake’s been unable to work because of the demands of constant doctor’s appointments and trips to the hospital.
“I’m doing it on my own,” Lake said. “It’s been hard.”
While the surgeries are covered through OHIP, the additional services Ryan requires are not.
Lake said the family is looking into physiotherapy and a physical therapist that specializes in facial re-education because of the drooping caused by the tumour. A hearing aid might need be considered down the road.
Ryan’s godmother, Crystal Gagnon, started a Gofundme page to cover additonal costs.
The page has a goal of $5,000. Gagnon writes, “If you can't afford to donate than please at least share this so that this little girl my goddaughter can get the extra help they so desperately need right now.”
The page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/brooklynn039s-brain-surgery.