Greg and Tina's Journey-medical bills

Greg has had minor headaches for the past couple of months that seemed easily treated with Excedrin, and we both attributed it to eye strain since he works with computers so much. On Wednesday January 29th, he came home from work with a similar headache that got worse throughout the night. We assumed it turned into a migraine so he took medication and I went to work. He sent me a text a couple of hours later saying he needed to go to the hospital. I immediately took him to our local hospital. When Greg told the doctor his symptoms, red flags were immediately raised so a CT scan was done. This showed a mass on the right side of his brain. The ER doctor immediately had him transported to a larger hospital which happened to house one of the best neurosurgeons in Indiana. The surgeon said brain surgery would be performed the following day, February 1st, to remove as much of the mass as possible and have it tested. Greg and I decided to move up our wedding planned for the summer to the following morning, so we were married in his hospital room in ICU at 11:00 am before his scheduled surgery at 3. Greg was in surgery for about two hours, and the nightmare of what ifs became a reality. He was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma which is considered terminal. The prognosis is 15 months, but thankfully one of our good friends is a surgeon and immediately began to do research. His connections led us to a neurosurgeon in Michigan who has access to amazing technology. Many of you know the kayak commercial where the brain surgeon had his patient looking up his flight... Well that is called brain mapping and this neurosurgeon can does it. What does that mean for us? Well, it means he can track to the very cell how much of the tumor he can remove before Greg's quality of life is effected. If he can get more of the tumor Greg's chances increase exponentially with treatment. Our friend tracked some of his patients, and he has a female patient, approximately the same age, same tumor, similar size and place and she is living a quality life 8 years later. This cancer is aggressive and will always come back, so essentially he removes as much as he can, Greg undergoes treatment then they scan often and wait for another mass to form. Rinse and repeat. 5 years ago this would have been a trial and Greg would have been a medical Guinea pig. Now it is standard medical procedure. This means if we can buy some time, who knows how far treatment will progress. I pretend to be strong for Greg but he is really the strong one, and many people ask how he's dealing with this. This is his mindset. Greg said, "I have the chance to fight, and that is what I'm going to do. I'm going to fight for every day I can get to spend with my kids, my new wife, and my family and friends. " That is where we are right now. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we start this battle.

Currently, Greg and Tina are working through some different treatment options for Greg, all of which are going to be costly. This page is set up to help them on their journey throughout this diagnosis.