Help my mom Isabel to beat brain cancer

Thank you for taking your time on reading this story...

 

My name is Deborah, and I'm reaching out to you to ask for your help. My mother, Isabel Echerman has been recently diagnosed with a type of brain cancer called Meningioma, a tumor that arises from the meninges — the membranes surrounding your brain and spinal cord. Although not technically a brain tumor, it is included in this category because it may compress or squeeze the adjacent brain.

 

Most meningiomas grow very slowly, often over many years, without causing symptoms. But sometimes, their effects on nearby brain tissue, nerves or vessels may cause serious disability, which is the case of Isabel, who currently is bound to a wheelchair and can barely move her hands due to serious coordination issues caused by the tumor.

 

In Isabel's case the only possible remaining treatment for her to beat this horrendous cancer is to have surgery and get it removed. Otherwise, the disease will continue to progress, and she will lose the ability to move her hands; later on, the 2.3 cm tumor that is very close to her control of respiration will take over, and she will no longer be here with us.

 

My mom is currently in Venezuela, where the lack of resources sometimes makes medical treatment very expensive, even when it is done in a public hospital, as patients need to bring their food as the hospital doesn't provide it, pay for expendables like gloves, gauze, scapels, sutures, catheters and in Isabel's case the rent of very specific surgery devices necessary to perform an automatic craniotomy (to cut a portion of the skull)

After talking about the current problem, I would like to speak to you about my mom, who she is, and how we got here.

 

Isabel became a widow of 2 twin daughters in 2002, after my father Julio Echerman died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of just 52 years old, leaving my mom, my sister Daniela and me when we just turned 14 years old.

 

 

 

After this, we were raised by my mom, who with the help of my uncle Moises was trying to raise two teenage girls in a country that was becoming more and more difficult and dangerous to live in as the years were passing by. My mother was always very active and creative, and she tried to reflect that in her way of living. She created her own wedding planning business. Despite the economic struggle and supporting two girls, her good nature was always evident on many occasions. She planned weddings for very little money or at almost no cost. She was planning the event for a couple struggling financially or planning an event for one of the Jewish community institutions as our family is part of this minority community in the country.

 

After a lot of hard work she is able to see both of her daughters graduate from university, one in Israel and the other in Venezuela.

She is also able to see one of her daughters ( Daniela) get married sadly by this time in 2017, she was already exhibiting signs of the disease.. she was not able to walk properly and was mostly mobilising in a wheelchair, had lost of weight and her coordination was not very good.

 

 

 

 

You might wonder: Why wasn't it diagnosed in 2017 if Isabel was already showing symptoms? The reason of this was because to be able to diagnose this tumour; patients need to have a Brain MRI. Many years ago, even before I was born, Isabel, had implanted ear prosthesis to help her with a condition of the inner ear called otosclerosis where the small bones of the inner ear fuse together. This prothesis were not compatible with the MRI machine, so the only available imaging modality that Isabel could have was tomography, which is not the best one for the study of brain masses, as if they are very little, they can be missed in a tomography scan.

 

Years later, in 2022 my mother started experiencing severe pain on her head and face, and her doctor referred her to a pain specialist. This amazing pain specialist, upon examining my mother and giving her some palliative treatment for pain decided to repeat the brain scans. After repeating the scans, it was evident, the cancer was there... slowly growing, creating pain and and compressing my mother's spine.

 

Please, help my family keep my mother for a little longer, help her be pain-free and have this life-saving surgery that will help her recover some of her mobility back; she is only 72 years old, has a grandson that was born during COVID and has not been able to meet, has a new son in law that has not been able to meet in person. Isabel still has so much to live for; with your help she can recover her life back.