Chris Fights For Her Life

Christine Gingras has been through so much in her short 39 year old life that it’s hard to condense the story for everyone to follow, but I will try my best. I want to start by telling you what an unbelievable person Chris has been her entire life. To know Christine is to love her. She's always there for everyone and anyone in any way she can. She's always lived her life with a huge smile on her face, brightening up other’s days. She is the best, kindest, most helpful person I've met in my life. She would do anything for anyone and always has. Her suffering started when she was just 2 years old, Christine was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Wilms Tumor, to which she lost one of her kidneys and the ability to bare children. She also suffered from over-radiation making any subsequent future treatments with it very dangerous. Her health wasn’t great but she lived many years fulfilling her dreams and happy. In 2012 she was diagnosed with uterine fibroids and was supposed to have a simple procedure to remove them. Everything went ok until after the fibroid surgery pathology revealed not fibroids but a deadly high-grade and very rare uterine cancer. And in October 2013 she was formally diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma. Because the doctor didn’t take the proper precautions during her fibroid surgery, he spread this deadly cancer into her blood stream. She needed a subsequent full hysterectomy and to remove anything else suspicious. After that Christine suffered through over a year of two different very aggressive chemotherapy regimens. First was the strongest cocktail available and she only did half as it nearly killed her and put her on the intubation in the ICU with a serious pneumonia and kidney failure for a long time. Second chemo was light yet still her body couldn’t handle it and she almost lost her life again to severe meningitis and shingles. She suffered many months on many treatments and dialysis. Then finally right before we got married in August 2014 we were told there was no sign of the disease and she was in remission. We were absolutely elated that all of the prayers helped and Christine would have more time. During this time Chris lived her life fully; she got married to her love of 8 years and soulmate and became a step-mom. She loved her cooking job for the state and it provided her with the means to support her family. Her wife has multiple sclerosis and has been disabled for many years and although she receives SSDI, it’s not enough to support the whole family. She also loved socializing with her many friends and family. Then in February 2016 a routine scan revealed at least 29 large tumors, two of which were wrapped around her intestines. 2/26/16 she underwent a complex and major surgery to remove all tumors visible to the eye. They removed all the tumors planned as well as two sections of intestines and her belly button. The surgery was a success even though the recovery has been pure torture for Christine. 16 days later during a scan the doctors discovered a new tumor has grown rapidly since the surgery. Her outlook is very poor and most people are lost to this cancer. The plan is to try radiation to shrink the tumor to prepare for yet another surgery and kill any cancer cells not visible to the eye, but we have to be careful as her body is weak and she has already been over radiated. She has reached her maximum lifetime chemo allowance and we will only try that if there is no other choice left. We ask for your help for the simple things, like making sure Chris can stay in her home which is the best environment for her and can manage to pay her bills and food expenses. But also for the big things like all the medical expenses and health insurance since Christine cannot work for months and has no short term disability or other income what so ever. And finally help to possibly travel to Dana Farber or Sloan or even further to try and save her life with cutting edge treatments not available in our state. Her brother passed over a year ago from cancer himself so this wonderful family has been through unthinkable amounts of grief, pain and financial ruin. Any donations at all no matter how small or prayers are greatly appreciated and will go directly to Christine. She is a wonderful wife, friend, stepmother, daughter and sister and deserves the best treatment regardless of her financial means; unfortunately that's not how life works.

Please help her so that she can travel and concentrate on getting the best treatment available to save her life.

You will find a friend for life in her.

Thank you for your help and prayers and shares of this page!!!!

 

**The goal amount is just a number to fill the required field; any and all donations no matter how small will be helpful and much appreciated.