Donate to Aid Recovery from Spinal Cancer Surgery

Some of you may know that I’ve spent the last couple years fighting a rare type of bone cancer, Giant Cell Tumor of the spine, after surgery in February of 2022. The tumor location left us with many questions, as it was impossible to remove the full tumor body, wrapped around my vertebral artery. I had my C7 vertebrae completely removed, replaced with a metal cage to stabilize my spine.

The last couple years have been filled with fluctuations of treatment plans, loss of function on my dominant side, and unknown repercussions to long-term chemotherapy. After working with doctors around the country and stabilizing the tumor in my spine, I was given a notice of remission in June of 2024. Unfortunately, the results to these scans were inaccurately depicted and the recommendation to halt chemotherapy caused a massive regrowth of the tumor. At this time, the cancer has spread through up to my C5 and down to my T1. This means that I will be undergoing a second spinal surgery in the coming week to replace the entirety of the metal hardware and re-stabilize my vertebrae. After surgery, I will be admitted to 6 weeks of radiation to target the remaining cancer cells and in hopes that this will stop them from pushing against my spinal cord and esophagus. The specialists’ goal is to use a form of proton radiation that has a lesser change of secondary cancer, as my current age of 25 allows for radiation to cause long-term damage to surrounding organs.