While my sister Carrissa was pregnant, she began experiencing major pain. Doctors played it off as pregnancy pain and couldn't do any X-Rays or MRI's in fear of harming the baby. My sister dealt with the pain until she gave birth and at that point she demanded an MRI.
After reading the MRI's doctors agreed that there was something seriously wrong and sent her MRI's to a neurologist. The neurologist immediately called my sister and told her that she had a massive tumor in her spinal cord. They later identified it as Myxopapillary Ependymoma, which spanned the entire lumbar section (L1-L5) of her spine and it was entwined with her nerves.
She was diagnosed at the beginning of April and a week later on April 8, 2015, she was sent to UC San Francisco to undergo spinal neuro-surgery. After hours of surgery and a week in the hospital, she was sent home to recover. Carrissa was very determined to recover so she could hold her baby again and go back to work.
As a way to monitor her progress and watch to see if the tumor grew back, she had regular MRI's at UCSF. At her last visit on March 14, 2017, doctors confirmed that she had at least 5 tumors growing in the space that the original tumor was in. They are growing at a moderate rate, which is fast for this type of cancer.
Doctors have come to the conclusion that she cannot have another surgery to remove the tumors because of the risk of permanent damage to the nerves responsible for all lower body functions.
At this point, doctors are recommending Carrissa have 7-8(week long) sessions of proton radiation in Seattle Washington. There are only a few of these proton radiation machines in the world (about 45), which is why she will receive treatment 960 miles away from her family, friends and baby for at least 2 months.
Carrissa will be responsible for medical bills, travel expenses for her and some family (who will have to take care of her while she's getting treatment), hotel, food and a loss in pay from her job from being gone for 2 months. Of course she will have her regular house, car, child care, insurance bills etc. etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated by Carrissa and her family. This is another life changing even that Carrissa will have to go through in such a short amount of time and the last thing we want her to think about is how she is going to pay for medical bills and housing and keep her house and car and family with food on the table. Thank you for reading her story.