Andreaska's Fight to Beat Burkitt Lymphoma

Some of you know the story of our journey but for those of you who don't, here goes. On Sunday August 14th, 2022 we gathered at the quarry to celebrate Andreaska's decision to start a new adventure on the other side of the country. She literally moved from the Antlantic to the Pacific in pursuit of new teaching experiences in a new setting. While we knew we woud miss her terribly we all wished her well as she spread her wings. Monday , October 17th I received a call telling me she was in the ER and that they had found a growth in her intestine. The plan was to call a surgeon and get it removed, however, once the surgeon took a look it was determined that cancer was a real possiblility and she should be referred to a colorectal specialist. She was scheduled for a colonoscopy /biopsy on Thursday the 20th and I arrived on Oct 22 expecting to be here a month whe she healed. On the 24th she got the report that she had lymphoma and she was then referred to an oncologist. Nov 3rd she was told she had Large B-Cell Non-hodgkin Lymphoma and a plan was set in place. The next day she received a call informing her that the pathology was seeing something else and to hold tight because it looked like Burkitt. Sunday, Nov 6th she received a call from her oncologist confirming the suspicion and directing us to report for hospital admission the following day after she had her port put in. He said to be prepared for a week long stay, with a new plan, which turned into a 48 day hospital stay due to many complications that nearly resulted in our losing her over Thanksgiving. Dec 25 we received the best Christmas present ever when she was discharged at 12:30 pm

Next steps were to do another four rounds of chemo outpatient while she also went to physical therapy where she went from using a wheelchair full time to waking with a cane in good time. She rang the bell on March 17th and we were excited because her last 3 scans showed no tumor. We felt certain that her treatment had been effective in curing her. April 14th she needed another set of scans done before we could be given the okay to head back to Maine. On April 17th when we met for the follow up we did not receive th news we hoped for. In 3 weeks Andreaska's body grew another tumor in the same area because some cells wer non-responsive to the treatment. She had a right side robotic sem hemicolectomy on April 20th to remove the tumor and she is awaiting stem cell transplant which we hope will happen, sooner rather than later, as soon as a match can be found.

Through all of this we have had some great supportive people help us along the way and could carry things between us. Now we have reached a point where we realize that this is not sustainable anymore for many different reasons, mainly my sick time running out, Andreaska not qualifying for SSD, and not being able to get a clear answer on when her work related benefit is going to end. We might have to cover expenses for the donor to get here and stay when we find a match. We will definitely need to cover the expenses if the donor is someone we know.

We understand that everyone is goind through stuff but greatly appreciate anything that anyone can do to help us.