Carter Woodall The whole world changed September 13th 2022. That day he started acting strange (a drunk 5 year old best describes it). His parents took him to urgent care and were immediately sent to CHOA. They discovered brain inflammation and admitted him. Carter was discharged a week later with a diagnosis of possible viral encephalopathy and he was given a month of steroids. The steroids didn’t resolve his symptoms so he was readmitted on October 29th, then the word “possible brain tumor” was introduced into conversations. The family met Dr. McThenia & Dr. Mazewski. They ordered a biopsy of the highest inflammation on his thalamus and the cells came back abnormal. Carter was diagnosed with a grade II Glioma. He immediately had surgery and had a port installed, then started chemo about a week later. He was readmitted in January because he had hydrocephalus (excessive fluid & pressure in the brain). They did an emergency surgery and Dr. Brahma installed a shunt to drain the pressure. At the same time, the Precision Medicine testing came back and revealed it was a grade IV Glioma, much more aggressive than originally thought. They stopped the chemo and immediately started 30 treatments of radiation. For 7 weeks the family drove down to Emory every single morning, leaving the house at 6am. Carter is now stable and his latest MRI showed shrinkage. The shunt did its job and his cranial pressure is gone. His symptoms have much improved and he went back to school 3 days a week. He’s been given a new drug regiment and thanks to Precision Medicine, they are giving him an inhibitor drug that targets his specific mutation.

95.5 WSB Care-a-Thon Through The Years WSB's Scott Slade, Consumer Expert Clark Howard and Dr. Bill Woods, director of the Aflac Cancer Center from 2001-2015.