Help Jason and Jen Tanner in their Cancer Fight!

Have you been struggling to know how to help Jason and the Tanner family, as he fights for his life battling appendix cancer? Jason is having a major 15+ hour surgery this coming week in Pennsylvania. Jen will be traveling with him and will be staying in a hotel-type situation away from friends and family for possibly a month or more. Along with mounting medical bills, they will have food, travel and housing needs.

Join us in making a simple financial donation that can be used for meals, an uber, a hotel night, or whatever needs may arise, so that their focus can be on Jason and his health, and not on the financial stress associated with being away from home for such an extended time along with and all of the major bills associated with this extensive surgery and other cancer treatment related expenses. While we can't all be there in person to support them, we can all help from afar as they work with one of the premiere doctors in the country for such a rare cancer, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Jen's update 5//16

PITTSBURGH!!!!!

Disclaimer- long post,...

I cannot emphasize this enough- in today’s world, it’s VITAL to be your own health advocate.

Laparoscopy done. ✔️ Clinical study of bacteria injected into a few tumors complete ✔️

Massive surgery in 2 weeks.

Yesterday was the first time we met Dr. Wagner face to face in person. He was refreshingly personable. He explained Jason’s first biopsy results with more detail than we’ve ever heard.

Mostly the difference between low grade vs high grade tumors. When we first got the results from our Phoenix oncologist, she mentioned Jason had both low and high grade tumors.

Dr. Wagner stated the documentation from the original biopsy he received only mentions low grade, so that’s what he’s using for his data until the biopsy results from today (he took more tissue from several areas) are known.

Dr. Wagner shared that in todays procedure, he only found low grade tumors. That could change once the big surgery happens and he’s able to see the entire cavity throughout, but from all he has seen today, it’s all low grade.

So what does that mean?

High grade tumors grow quickly but also respond extremely well to chemo. Low grade is slow growing. Jason learns to live side by side with it, until the tumors take over and suffocate or permeate his other organs, which would take the 3-5 year projected time. He said with the amount of tumors he has, Jason has had this for a long time. It also means chemo will never work. It means he went through 14 rounds of chemo, wrecked his body, has neuropathy and other other damage that provided little to no benefit. It means doing chemo would probably kill him faster than doing nothing. (His current treatment from the local oncologist and specialist was “chemo for the rest of his life”).

The only treatment that will work is to remove the tumors while trying not to rupture organs in the process. The tumors will eventually grow back, but a surgery to remove them is the only way to extend his life. When Dr. Wagner explained today’s procedure to us today, his words were “this is going to be almost exactly like the procedure you had in August, except I’m not going to tell you surgery isn’t an option.”

And he didn’t.

In the next surgery -Dr. Wagner, in essence, will reset the clock.

Dr. Wagner shared a comparison of Jason’s tumors like moldy bread. It’s everywhere. It doesn’t scare him, but it’s going to be a very, very long day of surgery, with a minimum of 15 hours where he will be hand cutting every tumor out of Jason’s abdomen. He also will be removing the tumors that were injected with the clinical study to test in his lab and hopefully progress cancer research in ways to repair/retrain the immune system for a cure.

The exact date for surgery is still to be shared with us, but May 30th is most likely. He will have a 30 day hospital recovery stay- give or take depending on complications and how quickly he heals. Sorry for the graphic pics, but to give reference to why a 15 hour surgery is necessary….the images are just one small subsection of his abdomen, each of those -what looks like small blisters- are all tumors. And he has 80% coverage.

Final thought I feel I need to share :

With a rare cancer such as this, finding the right doctor is key. An oncologist is better than a general practitioner, but finding a specialist in your particular cancer is even more important. We went to MD Anderson, Houston for that specialist. If, when you see that specialist, the door closes, but it doesn’t feel right—- keep following that prompting!! Peace finally came in the form a single comment I read perusing on a social media post in a cancer group from months prior. “The only person who truly knows if you’re a candidate for surgery is a surgical oncologist.” ✋ Wait- there is another tier from oncology specialist to surgical oncologist?!? The answer was plain and simply revealed to me. From there, I went on the hunt for the most experienced surgeon with the greatest success rate. If anyone was going to close the door, Dr. Wagner was the only one I would accept that answer from.

In this case, getting the right doctor has made the difference between a life and death situation- or at least a life with maybe one or two more decades pending all goes well. I’m thankful for a God who has a plan and can lead individuals to truth and peace.