Co-workers and friends know Stacy and Jay Sessions of Destrehan as being “the nicest people you would ever want to know,” but tragedy struck them last month when their 8-year-old son Brady was diagnosed with a temporal lobe brain tumor.
Now the staff at the rehabilitation department of St. Charles Parish Hospital, where the Sessions used to work, is trying to help.
“Jay had just accepted a new job and was caught between insurances when all this happened,” said James Miller, director of rehab services. “They touched our lives so much that we wanted to do as much as we could for them.”
The staff got together to host football pools to raise money in October and are planning to sell lunches on Nov. 5 for $8. The lunches include shrimp fettuccini, green beans, French bread and dessert and will be delivered between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. To order lunch, contact Miller at (504)450-2442 or Carrey Britsch at (504)214-5967.
Miller said that they plan to host more fundraising events over the next month.
The Sessions moved from Destrehan to Bossier City in July to be closer to Brady’s grandparents. That meant that Brady was transferred from New Sarpy Elementary, a school he had attended since kindergarten.
“Brady was not too thrilled about moving. He was happy here at his school, he loved it here,” Stacy said. “He started coming home telling me that his head and stomach were hurting during the day at school. We thought it was just because he started a new school and was worried or anxious.”
However, Brady’s symptoms started getting worse and then one day Stacy noticed him having small seizures.
“In mid-September, I noticed that he had a small seizure. The episodes would last just a minute or so…and he wouldn’t respond to you and he would be kind of confused afterward,” she said. “I asked his teacher and she said she had noticed that he did it a couple of times at school.”
In early October, Brady went to the hospital for an MRI where he was diagnosed and treated for seizures, but a tumor was also found.
“It is operable, but we may have additional treatments with either radiation or chemo(therapy), but they won’t make that call until after surgery,” Stacy said. She said that doctors will not be sure whether or not the tumor is cancerous until a biopsy is done in mid-November.
“It probably is (cancerous), but we won’t know that until they do the biopsy,” she said. “The doctors think it is a low grade and that it’s early and hopefully we’ll be able to remove most of it if not all of it and then do radiation or chemo and be done.”
Now expenses are piling up with the family shuttling back and forth for doctor visits at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, a specialty hospital and surgery in Memphis where the surgery will take place.
“I contacted some friends from the rehab department after we got the diagnosis and they said they were going to do something to help us,” Stacy said. “The money they raise will be used for some of the travel and medical expenses.”
Anyone interested in donating to the Sessions family can do so at First National Bank USA in Boutte, Norco or LaPlace. A Brady Sessions Fundraiser account was set up there by Miller and other friends of the family.
“It’s just sad what this family has to go through,” Miller said. “If anybody wants to make a donation, know that it will definitely be for a good cause.”
Stacy said that Brady is growing anxious about the surgery, but otherwise seems like a healthy, normal kid.
“He’s on seizure medication so the seizures are pretty much gone,” she said. “You wouldn’t know a thing was wrong if you looked at him right now. He jumps around, plays kickball and video games and everything looks fine.”
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