104 SIDELINES OCTOBER 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
complaints about anything. Then in July, she came down with
what the doctor thought was a “stomach bug.” Two weeks later
when it returned, the doctor prescribed Z-Pak for a week, in case
a sinus infection was upsetting Avery’s stomach.
“One day after the Z-Pak ended, the vomiting came back and
I told the doctor that something wasn’t right,” Vicki recalled. “It
wasn’t like Avery to have stomach problems, but I couldn’t figure
out what was ‘off.’ The morning after that last bout of ‘stomach
flu’ Avery complained
that her right eye was
blurry.”
John and Vicki
took their daughter
to the emergency
room where, after
observing Avery for
several hours, doctors
ordered an MRI at 5 o’clock. “By 10 p.m. we found ourselves
being wheeled onto the seventh floor oncology ward at Children’s
Hospital. Life stopped on a dime and we will never be the same,”
Vicki said.
Avery was diagnosed with Diffuse High Grade Glioma. The
survival rate is 14 to 30% percent, but 30 percent
only
if they can
cut it out. Avery’s was diffuse – inoperable. She went through a
brain biopsy and, within two weeks of diagnosis, had a port placed
in her chest. She endured radiation therapy five days a week for
six-and-a-half-weeks, one month of rest and recovery, then 10
three-week cycles of chemotherapy, which were part of a phase
two clinical trial.
“Avery was the model patient – she exceeded all expectations
in killing her tumor,” recalled Vicki. “Diffuse High Grade Gliomas
have tentacles that move at will and are somewhat undetectable
until they stop moving and start growing. They are evil and deadly
and almost impossible to kill – they are protected by the ‘blood
brain barrier’ (which prevents medications in the blood from
crossing into the brain). Avery knew
none
of this. She asked one
day if her condition was life threatening and we told her ‘yes, but
that is why Dr. Meg and Dr. Lui were going to fix her with their
machines and medicine.’ She never questioned her mortality
again and we lived and laughed.”
Avery knew that she would lose her long blonde hair to the
radiation therapy, so she opted to have her cousin, Jillian, a hair
stylist, cut her hair so she could donate it to Locks of Love. She
loved to sing and flipped it around like her idol, Taylor Swift. Avery
accessorized her ponies in her colors, pink and purple – the latter
was her favorite – and talked Jillian into dyeing a purple streak
into her new bob. Her father and two uncles, Tom and Chris, got
buzz cuts to support Avery. Vicki maintains a purple streak in her
John, Grace and Vicki last spring at the Colorado Horse Park,
after they won their Beginner Novice division – for Avery.
Photo Courtesy of Rochelle Costanza/Platinum Farms
Vicki Dudasch and Audrey, Rochelle and Gracefully Dun
competed at the Full Gallop Horse Trials in Aiken, South
Carolina in March, 2013: “I like that it shows Rochelle helping
me make Avery’s wish come true for Grace,” said Vicki.
“This was Avery’s last trip to Kauai (May 2012) on the rocks
outside our condo,” Vicki said. “We spent hours on those rocks
watching the water for dolphins, turtles, crabs and whales
breeching. Her ashes are in those waters off those rocks.”
She sits deep in the saddle
She shortens the reins
She gives him a kick and a click and they’re off!
By Avery Dudasch, age 9
Continued on page 106
