Chantz's Brain Cancer Journey

Hi, my name is Kendra and my husband Cody and I are best friends with Chantz & Kenzie Hewitt. They have taken our kiddos on as their niece & nephew and we absolutely love them with our whole hearts. We are doing this GoFundMe in an effort to alleviate some of the stress/hardships on them while Chantz heals from his brain surgery. He is out of work until September for sure and not to mention the medical bills. Please see below for a little more about his ongoing cancer journey. Chantz just turned 29 in May, this is not what anyone imagined to be in his and Kenzie's future.

On Friday, May 19th, while driving to get some dinner, Chantz suffered from a seizure. As it would happen, Chantz bumped into an off-duty EMT who had just finished a shift. They managed to call an ambulance and have medical assistance ready and available to Chantz once he regained conciousness. They managed to get him out of the car and off to the hospital in a matter of minutes. Kenzie was on her way to South Dakota for her cousins college graduation and man was that the call of lifetime to hear that her husband had had a seizure and was being rushed to the hospital. While her step-dad rushed her back, Chantz's parent's were able to get there. After an EKG, blood work and a brain scan it was determined that Chantz would need to be transferred to another hospital for further tests and examination. The brain scan showed a dark matter indicating there was something on the left side of his brain that was causing pressure and ultimaltey caused the seizure. 

With some high recommendations, Abbott Northwestern was chosen to transfer Chantz to their neurology department. After a long wait, Chantz was transfered up to the cities for the night.

On Saturday morning Kenzie finally got to see Chantz and talk with some doctors to figure out next steps. They were able to talk with a neurosurgeon to which he explained that he believed Chantz had a tumor on the left side of his brain, in his frontal lobe. One that he believed had be growing for quite some time. But gave them some reassurance that being that the tumor was in the left frontal lobe and him being left handed, it meant there was better chance on removing the tumor and having minimal side effects.

On the way to the hospital Sunday, Kenzie got a call from one of his doctors to confirm that it was in fact a tumor and they would get more information from the neurosurgeon later on. The neurosurgeon came and talked with them that surgery to remove the tumor would be scheduled for the coming week and Chantz would be in the hospital for a couple nights again. His doctor told them the tumor was roughly the size of an egg and that he considered it a 'small' tumor for the location.

On May 25th, Chantz had surgery to remove the tumor and it went great! They were able to remove the whole tumor & initial MRI scans looked good. The tumor was sent off for testing to see if it was cancerous.

On June 7th, Chantz had his sutures removed from the incision site. He is not able to work until September due to how long it takes the brain to actually heal. He also cannot lift more than 10lbs during this time, and cannot drive for 3 months. On June 8th, they met with the neuro oncologist at Abbott & were informed that it was a primary, grade 2, astrocytoma.

This does mean that the tumor was cancerous and thus Chantz was officially diagnosed with brain cancer. Givent that the tumor is a primary tumor - this means that the tumor originated in his brain and did not come from cancerous cells anywhere else in his body. Secondly, the tumor was a grade 2 and while this is still cancerous, it is on the low end of the grading scale. The tumor has been there for years and while they can't tell exactly when it started to grow, because of how slow it grew over the years, Chantz's brain had more time to adapt to the growth.

At this time, Chantz will not have to complete any further treatment including radiation or chemotherapy. This might sound crazy given that it is cancer but there are strong reasons behind it. Given how far back Chantz's tumor had grown, it was very very close to his main motor functions. If radiation was completed, they radiate the area around where the tumor was. If they were to do this, this would cause permanent damage to some main motor functions. His doctor said he would have permanent, life-long damage to both his short-term memory and speech. He would lose most of his ability to put together sentences and therefore make it very hard to speak. And given that the entire tumor was removed, chemotherapy is not needed right now. Chantz will instead be monitored every 3 months with MRIs for the foreseeable future. After insurance, Chantz and Kenzie are looking at approximately a $8k bill every 3 months for these MRIs...this would be a hardship for anyone.

Overall, the oncologist described Chantz's situation as a 'best case scenario'. The tumor was in the frontal lobe which allowed them to operate. The tumor was fully removed and he is not showing any signs of neurological deficits. All wins in our book! Another tumor could grow back, it could be a higher grade than before, he could have another seizure and he could need radiation or chemotherapy in the future.

The oncologist also gave us the prognosis of his tumor. The average life expectancy for someone with Chantz's condition is 10-15 years.