Up Next: Mayo Clinic & Clinical Trials
Hi, everyone!
It’s been almost a month since the last blog post, here are some updates.
On Friday, April 14th, an MRI unfortunately confirmed the reappearance as well as the growth of the tumor. What this means is that the cancer is not responding to chemotherapy. Fortunately, we had already taken some advice from my father, you’ll recall a few months ago we got to speak to a doctor at the Mayo Clinic who advised us that we were on the right treatment path for the current progress of the cancer but advised to reach back out when there were changes/updates. This week we certainly had updates.
We were able to speak with our Mayo Clinic Neuro oncologist this week where he confirmed our Michigan team’s treatment plan, however, he had a lot more to offer us. The Mayo Clinic currently has a clinical trial where they combine immunotherapy with the same surgery I have to have anyway - a treatment that could increase my life expectancy 3x vs the standard treatmnt. The Mayo Clinic doctor will be reaching out to us over the next few days to cover what the treatment plan looks like and to confirm timing. We aren’t confirmed that I’m eligible, but based on what our Mayo doctor is seeing, he has no reason to believe I am not a candidate. This means that I’ll be going in for another freaking crainiotomy (the part where they do major brain surgery) within the next week to 2 weeks.
So how can you help?
Marcy and I will have to travel to Minnesota very shortly for this surgery. This is a big milestone for us and we have to move very quickly so if you are looking for a way to help us, here are some suggestions. Again, don’t feel obligated; this is to answer those “How can I help” questions:
-contributing to the gofundme, these funds will be used for travel to the Mayo Clinic and back home as well as pay for health insurance as this will be both out of network and out of pocket
(GoFundMe Link) - https://gofund.me/8f3d9678 for everyone who has already donated-thank you so much, it brings much joy and hope to Marcy and I as we go down this uncharted road together
-picking from the following list of things related to the house that we could use help with while we have to be gone:
lawn care
animal care
house organizing/ house project work
grubhub or doordash gift cards
amazon gift cards
taking Matthew to fun activities
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers, and we’ll keep you updated over the coming days.
