Hi all. I'm so sorry I've been away. Between intermittent work, kids and appointments/chemo my schedule is kind of full these days! Thanks so much to everyone's kindness and messages of support.
On Saturday, Kim's doctors ordered an MRI of a region of her brain they'd been concerned about for the last two months. We were told it was precautionary, and they'd let us know what they'd found Monday during her regular appointment.
They called first thing Sunday morning. This was not a good sign.
The MRI had shown a <2cm mass in her right frontal lobe. Detailed analysis leads the doctor to believe that it is some form of glioma.
Best case scenario is an oligodendroglioma, which is very treatable and responds well. Worst case is glioblastoma which... isn't and doesn't. Further investigation will happen this week. In the meantime, regular treatment for the sarcoma continues, and this is just one more thing to chuck onto the every-growing pile of "stuff we get to deal with".
We're both in a bit of shock about this. The doctor is going to discuss treatment options today, but he's still sounding confident. Theyll perform a needle biopsy Tuesday, and get it fully type and genenetically assessed. From the markers, it appears to be a good candidate for new treatments involving "CDK5 and kinase inhibitors". Apparently, these have shown enormous promise in stopping gliomas in their tracks and preventing recurrence after excision. Yesterday afternoon was spent feverishly looking up what all that means. It looks... more hopeful, I guess? Apparently they caught it relatively early, which means we're weirdly grateful to Kim's other cancer. I may be going insane though, so don't hold me to that.
We can't believe that Kim has TWO different cancers. Its... not fair. The sarcoma is on the ropes, damn it! She was winning! And now... no... no darkness here. Just a new fight is all.
The sarcoma is in check now. It's been downgraded in seriousness and they truly believe that remission is possible, even probable. There are even signs of shrinkage in the brain metastases! I suppose this means that they can concentrate more on this new... thing. First up a needle biopsy... then probable surgery and then chemo and proton knife.
As you know, I've been picking up work here and there to try and cover some of our expenses. Unfortunately, this new scan almost cleaned us out, and we need a tiny bit of help. I hate to come back again but it's a little urgent.
We have a disconnect notice on the electric bill here at Kim's sister's apartment. We've been contributing what we can but last month we couldn't help much, and our "friendly neighbourhood" electric company is playing hardball. They're demanding $220 by the 16th of April. I can pay about $90, but we're not sure where we can get the other $130. Please... if there's any way anyone can help, we'd be eternally grateful.
Since there's not enough time to set up a GoFundMe, if anyone can help please send anything they can spare to our PayPal at churlygurl (at) gmail (dot) com. We hate coming back again like this, and we're trying to get funds together from this end too. I'll keep everyone updated on our running total. It's not an ideal time of year for this to happen, I understand. I hope you can help, and I'll see what I can achieve as well.
Basically, just not a great weekend all round, I guess.
We won't give up, and we won't stop. Thank you all so much for your kindness and support, and I'll try to keep you all in the loop a bit more when we know more.
With love
Callum and Kim
UPDATE 9:15AM
Words fail us for about the hundred thousandth time since this started... all we can say is Thank you! With that immediate worry taken care of, we can turn to this other thing... we're taking suggestions for names. The sarcoma is "The Little Bitch", so something along those lines would be good.
Thank you all again so very much. Please know that you are all so incredible and amazing people that we feel you to be family.
{{{{EVERYONE}}}}