Carol Crow

Almost 8 years ago,  Carol was 38 weeks pregnant and trying to schedule a last minute eye appointment to figure out why her vision was all wonky. The ophthalmologist reassured her that pregnancy can do weird things to your vision. She went home and took a much-needed nap, only to wake up in labor. Our sweet girl was born early the next morning on April 14th. Her vision unfortunately kept getting worse, prompting an MRI only 3 days later which showed a tumor at the base of the skull, most likely chordoma, a one in a million cancer that has no treatment other than radiation and surgery.. She had surgery in February 2010 at Vanderbilt which confirmed  chordoma and then underwent 35 days of radiation in Houston at MD Anderson that summer. She had a recurrence in December 2013, leading to gamma knife radiosurgery (more radiation)in Houston in May 2014. She had a second recurrence confirmed in November 2015. The neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt advised the tumor was inoperable. We were not convinced and sent her records to multiple surgeons across the United States for evaluation. She had surgery by a reknowned surgeon in Pittsburgh this past January. The surgeon is amazing. Post-operatively he thought he had removed all of the tumor, but there was a small something on MRI that was thought to be either tumor or scar tissue. Given her ongoing symptoms over the past several months, we returned to Pittsburgh in March for another MRI which unfortunately confirmed there was a small piece of tumor sitting on or near her 3rd cranial nerve. Her surgeon recommended another round of gamma knife radiosurgery about three to four months ago. After this surgery, the MRI showed the tumor on her carotid artery, which led to a major craniotomy surgery on October 20, 2016. This surgery has brought us to the point where we now asking for your help and  for your support. Carol has been moved to an intensive rehabilitation facility in Pittsburgh where she will be for several weeks. Kyle is going to have to return to work this week in Nashville as Carol continues to receive care  in Pittsburgh. This means frequent trips to and from Pittsburgh , hotel rooms, and  a lot of medical costs. Many of you have asked us for ways that you could help. So, please consider even making a small donation to Carol's Medical Fund that will help our family  in so many ways.