Please pray for Julia Pinotti and her family

She is under treatment for brain tumor

Many of you may know this already, but for those who don’t, here is the background: Tom and Carrie Pinotti’s daughter, Julia, was just diagnosed with a brain tumor. They were in Pennsylvania at the time she got sick and were flown to the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. They will do a biopsy on Tuesday, June 6, and should know more at the end of the week. For now, she is at least back at her grandparent's house and out of the hospital until the procedure. They have a website to update everyone on Julia's progress:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/juliapinotti

St. Martin's will do everything possible to keep you informed about Julia as we are supplied information by her family. Below is an email message to all of us from Tom, Julia's father.

From Tom Pinotti:

Thank you for everyone's prayers and support, but we will need your prayers for the foreseeable future. The MRI shows Julia has a tumor that’s very close to the brain stem. The tumor cannot be surgically removed due to where it is but they will be doing an operation to get a biopsy. In order to treat this cancer as effectively as possible, the oncologists need a biopsy of the cancer to identify and understand what chemo works best. Thus, we have no choice about operating. It will also better tell us success rates and recurrence. We will have the biopsy surgery done here in Philadelphia next Tuesday. We will get final biopsy results by the end of that week and begin focusing on chemotherapy.

We are hoping to give Julia a break from hospitals and new faces and see if we can be discharged tomorrow assuming the docs are satisfied she is stable. We are going to take her to Carrie's folks to visit with her sister and cousins.

It is a long road and fight ahead, but it is a fight that must and will be won. Please continue to keep Julia in your prayers as we take this one day at a time.

Please forward this to anyone we may have missed as we have limited email access away from home.