Turlock mom Jill Griffith is glad she didn’t listen to her son’s doctors.
For over two years, Griffith’s son Nate, a sixth grader at Brown Elementary School, has had trouble with his sinuses. His nose was constantly stuffed up, causing difficulty breathing — especially at night when trying to sleep —and he experienced frequent bloody noses. She would take him to the doctor, only to be told that the problem is most likely allergies or a prolonged cold virus.
“It reached a point last summer where I thought, you know, we need to do something more about this,” said Griffith.
When she kept pushing the doctors, they decided that his adenoids (glands located in the upper airway) may be inflamed and causing the issues. Having enlarged adenoids removed is a common solution for children who have chronic ear infections, sleep apnea and recurring sinus infections, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
In November, Nate went into surgery to have his adenoids removed, but when they went in they found there was nothing abnormal about his adenoids, said Griffith. The surgeon then did an endoscopy to see what could be causing problems in his sinus cavity and found something blocking his right nostril. Nate was then sent for further scans.
“And the CT scan came back with just this huge mass. And here we were thinking it was adenoids, but it comes back looking like there’s a tennis ball inside of his face,” said Griffith.
A detailed MRI showed that the mass in his right sinus cavity when down his throat and into his right nostril as well. The doctors at Stanford Medical Center diagnosed Nate in early December 2024 with juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma, a rare, benign tumor that originates in the nasopharynx, the space behind the nose and above the soft palate.
“Because of how uncommon this tumor was, it was really hard for Stanford to get everything organized. The only method of treatment really is surgical removal…This tumor is highly vascular, which means it is growing from a blood vessel in his sinus cavity and his originated from near his brain stem at the skull base and his carotid artery was feeding it…Nate ended up having four different surgeons for this tumor, so it took a really long time to get a treatment plan in place,” said Griffith.
Before removing the tumor, Nate had to have surgery to block the blood flow from his carotid artery to the tumor. His primary surgery took place on Feb. 10.
“It was a nine-hour surgery that they managed to do in seven hours, and they said it went as perfectly as it possible could,” Griffiths said, even though they had to remove 50% of his septum and drill into his skull.
Nate has spent the last several weeks recovering and was able to return to school last week. While he’s back at school — and sleeping better than he has in years — Nate said he misses being able to play baseball with his teammates.
There is one thing that Nate is better at now since the surgery, and that’s pronouncing the word, “mom.”
“Being a parent and going through something like this, and watching your child face something like this, is heartbreaking and it’s humbling at the same time. One day your life is ordinary, and then all of a sudden, your reality is shattered,” said Griffith.
