March 2019, our world was turned upside down when we got the diagnoses of Stage 4 neuroblastoma. Many of you remember this day as clear as I do and have followed Evelyn’s journey to beat cancer. We all thought we had won the battle, until last week…

Evvy’s routine scan indicated that she has indeed relapsed. We are all devastated, on the verge of tears at any given moment, and yet, determined to do all that we can to find a way to cure her of this dreadful disease.

In the next week or so she will have a CT scan and they will put her port back in. Meanwhile a treatment course is still undecided, but will likely involve Chemo and Immunotherapy, ideally finishing with some sort of experimental treatment in New York at MSK. Currently she is a patient at Dornbecher. She is the first patient that her Dr has had that has relapsed this far out. The treatment being discussed for her they have never even administered. The hospital at the forefront of these medications is MSK in New York. Evvy did a vaccine trial there so Steph has been in contact with them about Evvy’s situation. Well guess what? MSK won’t take their insurance and this apparently doesn’t qualify as “a life changing event” so they can’t switch insurances mid year. Where does this leave us? Sticking with what is covered and having this all be “new” to them or jumping ship and heading to New York. I’ll give you one guess where our minds are headed. Either way New York will be involved. At a minimum consulting along the way, which comes with significant travel expenses and out of pocket medical costs. Even just the second opinion could be a few thousand dollars.

Many of you have reached out asking how you can help. At this time leave from work, insurance coverage, and unknown financial costs are the biggest worries aside from the cancer that makes all other worries seem trivial. If you are a teacher or know a teacher in either the Vancouver or Evergreen school district please consider reaching out and donating a day of sick leave to them so they can focus on being with Evvy.

It’s my understanding we are looking at a very similar time frame for treatment. Which last time was over 2 years. Funds raised will go towards travel expenses, medical expenses, time off work, hospital toys/food needs, hotels in New York, honestly the list goes on and on. This is one scary ride but our village is strong. We know that, we feel all of you, please continue to pray for Evelyn as she starts round 2 of treatment.