The strength of chestnut eyes

SHELLY LEACHMAN, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

December 26, 2005 12:00 AM

Her speech is slow and slurred. She has trouble balancing herself and needs help getting from the kitchen table to the couch nearby. But look into her enormous chestnut eyes and it's obvious that Gaby Gonzalez-Gaytan has a strength belied by her own body.

Gaby has a pontine glioma -- a brain tumor named for its location in the pons area of the brain stem. Diagnosed around last Christmas, at the age of 7, doctors said Gaby likely wouldn't live to her next birthday. She turned 8 in July and is nearly halfway to 9.

"We've gone through a lot, but right now we're happy," said mom Juana Gonzalez-Gaytan. "She's had the best specialists she can."

She's also had the help of the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, which provides financial aid and moral support to families of kids treated for cancer at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. One of two area charities chosen to benefit from the annual News-Press Holiday Fund this year, the organization has helped Gaby's Lompoc-based family with several bills, Mrs. Gonzalez-Gaytan said.

The balance problems that still plague Gaby are what first signaled trouble last fall. She slept excessively, got dizzy easily and was falling down a lot, her mom recalled of her daughter's pre-diagnosis. And then came the headaches.

"At first doctors thought maybe she had some fluid on the brain, until the MRI showed it was a tumor," said Mrs. Gonzalez-Gaytan.

"You just can't imagine. We weren't expecting an answer like that."

The family fell further into distress when doctors said nothing more could be done for Gaby -- there were no known treatments to help her.

"The doctors told her, 'There's no more medication for you. If you ever leave this Earth you'll be like a balloon and just float away,' " Mrs. Gonzalez-Gaytan recounted.

The family began bracing themselves to lose Gaby, until Cottage doctors told them about an experimental treatment available at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Gaby has since made monthly visits to the Bay Area institution, participating in a clinical trial of the seizure drug valproate as a combatant against brain tumors, Robyn Howard-Anderson of Cottage Hospital confirmed.

Between starting valproate in September and a November MRI, Gaby's tumor shrank by 50 percent, said Mrs. Gonzalez-Gaytan. The family is awaiting results of a late-December scan that they hope follows suit. But for now, they're just glad to have Gaby home.

"That's been our Christmas," her mom said.