A mother has revealed the subtle sign in her baby’s eyes that she captured on video just one day before he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
Dina Anpilogova took a video of her son Elijah and captured his eyes moving quickly from side to side.
She rushed him to the emergency room fearing he was having a seizure. The doctors reassured her that the flutters were temporary and his eyes would return to normal soon.
However, Ms Anpilogova’s ‘mommy heart knew something was definitely wrong.’
After visiting her son’s pediatrician, he referred the three-month-old to a children’s hospital in Seattle. Scans revealed that there were two tumors in Elijah’s brain.
He was diagnosed with low-grade gliomas, slow-growing tumors that originate from cells part of the central nervous system.
Reflecting on the events, Ms. Anpilogova mentioned that there were other signs indicating something might have been wrong with Elijah. Unfortunately, these signs were dismissed or misdiagnosed by doctors, despite symptoms like weight loss and vomiting.
After the infant was diagnosed late last year, he immediately started chemotherapy.
Dina Anpilogova was concerned her son was having a seizure when she noticed his eyes were moving back and forth uncontrollably
The little boy (pictured here with his parents) was diagnosed with a low-grade glioma at three months old
Now seven months old, his erratic eye movements have decreased and his symptoms have improved, though the chemotherapy still makes him vomit sometimes.
And while a scan one month ago shows Elijah’s tumor hasn’t grown, it hasn’t shrunk either.
Low-grade gliomas account for about two-thirds of all pediatric tumors and are considered highly treatable and highly curable. They occur in about one per 100,000 people.
Symptoms include those Elijah was experiencing and can vary based on size and location of the growths and the age of the child. Others include seizures, confusion, sleepiness, premature puberty, headache, vision problems and clumsiness.
The tumors have a survival rate close to 90 percent depending on the specific type of tumor, according to Boston Children’s Hospital.
Ms Anpilogova, who has become a stay-at-home mom to be able to take care of Elijah, has not revealed which type of mass he has.
Surgery can improve outcomes, but because of where Elijah’s tumor is an operation cannot be performed.
‘Due to the placement of the bigger [one], doctors are unable to do surgery because if they touch any of the nerves that are surrounding the tumor, he could potentially go blind or become paralyzed for life,’ Ms Anpilogova told Newsweek.
The larger of the two tumors is sitting directly in the middle of the baby’s brain, affecting multiple regions. It is likely giving him headaches and its positioning behind the eyes is what causes the involuntary eye movement.
Elijah has been undergoing chemotherapy for about four months and while the tumor has shrunk, it also hasn’t grown at all
The improvement in his symptoms signals the chemotherapy is working, but it is unlikely the tumor will ever be able to fully be removed because of its location.
Elijah has undergone two surgeries to collect spinal fluid for testing and to insert a central line into his chest where he receives chemotherapy.
He now gets his nutrients through bottle feeding or a feeding tube inserted through his nose and into his stomach.
In an effort to spread awareness, Ms Anpilogova posts her son’s journey on TikTok and her videos have been watched more than 3million times.
On each is an outpouring of well wishes and prayers.
Ms Anpilogova said: ‘I’ve had a lot of mothers [and] fathers message me privately and say they have similar stories or thanking me for spreading awareness, asking me questions about my son’s diagnosis [and] giving them some kind of place to start from to ask questions when they go to the doctors.’
She added: ‘Our family is coping with this as much as we can. We have a very great support system due to his diagnosis.’
