Page 95 - The Exceptional Harley Fetterman

THE EXCEPTIONAL HARLEY FETTERMAN

In 2011, Harley gave a speech for a fundraiser for the newly
constructed Dell Children's Hospital in which he described his own
firsthand experiences shared with typical “Harley viewpoints”. His
speech follows:

“I am thirteen years old and I have been dealing with cancer since
July 2003. I have a tumor growing from my optic nerve that has made
me blind. I am here to tell you a few things about my experiences at
Dell Children's Medical Center and what I like about it.”

“I was diagnosed with my tumor right before my fifth birthday. I
have been through many and multiple brain surgeries, two surgeries
for my port-a-cath, and two rounds of chemotherapy. My second
round of chemo was dreadful! It came with a special diet, not a
healthy one at that. No cheese, no chocolate, no bananas, no canned
soups, no leftovers, no dried fruit, no sausage, and no peanut butter. I
couldn't even go out to eat.”
“I ended up in the hospital several times doing tests when my left
arm and leg would go numb and I would start slurring my words.
When I was finally done with the chemo, we were told that the
doctors thought I was having migraines from a severe food reaction
with the medicines. I'll never eat peanuts again because of it!”

“A lot of these hospital stays were at the old Children's Hospital. In
fact, at the time, I was a little disappointed because I thought I was
done with treatments and most likely would never have a reason to
stay at the Dell Children's Medical Center. I'd heard so many neat
things about it and it was a shame that I wouldn't have a reason to stay
here. Boy was I wrong!”

“After I was done with chemo for a while, my tumor was no longer
growing, but I started having issues with a cyst around my tumor. In
the two years between 2008 and 2009, I had more than seven brain
surgeries. One occurred late one Friday night after I lost feeling in
both arms and legs and started speaking gibberish. Scans showed that
the cyst had grown so large that it clogged up my ventricles and gave
me hydrocephalus of the brain. I had emergency surgery late that
night to drain the cyst and put in a shunt.”
“Finally, in October 2009, a new machine, called an Interactive
MRI, became available that allowed my neurosurgeon to monitor

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