Kristen Bilek vs. Brain Cancer

So..... On Saturday August 12 Kristen was at her parents lake house and had a full on seizure, scared the crap out of everyone there. She was brought to Pennock ER, that was the closest. They did a head CT and found an area of swelling and possibly something else so they transferred her to Butterworth for an MRI. The MRI showed a tumor....to quote the MRI report "there is a heterogeneous T2 hyperintense infiltrative mass involving the left frontal lobe. This infiltrative mass is involving both the cortex and the subcortical white matter of the left frontal lobe. The frontal lobe location and involvement of both cortex and subcortical white matter are typical of OLIGODENDROGLIOMA. Differential considerations include anaplastic oligodendroglioma and low-grade diffuse astrocytoma. This is not felt to represent an underlying infectious process nor an ischemia process." Kristen had her surgery on August 23 which went very well with Dr. Bryan Figueroa, whom she has known for years and says, "he is truly the best!" We all were patiently waiting for an update on the grading of the tumor, and she finally got the call on Tuesday, August 29. They told her, "it's anaplastic oligodendroglioma grade 3 with codeletion." Many probably asked or googled what that meant.... Kristen said, "so not great news, but the neat part is the codeletion/mutation makes the chemo work better. Cancer is weird, I cannot even begin to understand what any of this means, all I know is this fight will be going on longer than I was hoping." Her next step is to meet with Dr. Sherman with Neuro Oncology on August 31 and also has an appointment with Dr. O'Rourke on September 6. Kristen has been overwhelmed with all of the support and prayers she has received from everyone. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult adventure of her kicking this brain cancers booty!