11-year-old Salisbury girl battles inoperable brain tumor with optimism

11-year-old Rhyne Taylor has lost a lot this year – part of her vision, a month of school, her first softball season, and just being a normal fifth grade girl.

It’s the result of an inoperable brain tumor, but there is one thing she will not let it take away.

“I’ve had a really positive attitude,” she says. “I haven’t really been too worried about it because I know that they can treat it.”

“We’ve explained everything as straight forward as we can with her and put it in kid terms and she’s still like, OK,” says April Taylor, Rhyne’s mother.

It all started as an upset stomach, fatigue, and a headache back on April 7th. Rhyne’s mom, April, says she and the doctor, assumed it was a virus. Soon after, her symptoms intensified, becoming incredibly painful to the point of tears.

She went for testing, which included blood work and an x-ray of her abdomen, and everything came back normal. When doctors finally recommended an MRI a week later, the Taylor’s received an answer, but not one that they ever expected.

“He sat us down and broke the news that it was a brain tumor, he said that she was stable but she immediately needed to be sent to John Hopkins and if we could not get her to Johns Hopkins within the next couple of hours they were going to take her by ambulance,” says April. “That’s where we learned that where the tumor is sitting, it was blocking the drainage from her brain, so she had an immense amount of pressure built up. Suddenly it was like a punch in the face, that’s the only way to describe it.”

“At first it was ‘oh my gosh a brain tumor’ and then I was like, well at least they said it’s technically a good brain tumor to have out of all of them you can have,” says Rhyne.

The medical term is stage one glicoma, and the good news, it’s completely treatable, and doctors say it should not spread.

Now that Rhyne has had surgery to clear the passage way in her brain, she no longer has any symptoms, but still faces a year of chemo in both pill and IV form.

However, the future of long trips to Baltimore, and the side-effects of treatment, Rhyne and her mom say, does not seem as scary anymore.

“The community has just really been 110% supportive, people have amazed me, they really truly have,” says April.

Rhyne’s school, North Salisbury Elementary, has refused to send work home. Instead, they have just sent cards and pictures showing support. April says the biggest outpouring is fundraisers and donations.

The schools, along with April’s employer, Bundles of Joy, and Rhyne’s softball team, have hosted several events with even more in the works.

“It’s been amazing, like my mom said, they’ve been phenomenal.”

Despite a month away from school, Rhyne is still expected to move onto the sixth grade in top classes.

Doctors say her tumor may never officially go away, but neither will her optimism.

“I know I’m going to live a long happy life.”

For more on upcoming fundraising events, visit the Rally for Rhyne Facebook page. To donate directly, visit her Go Fund Me page.