Help support Laura with Brain Cancer treatments

Dear Friends,

 

As many of you know Laura has been diagnosed with Leptomeningeal Disease/Carcinomatosis. This is a very rare form of brain cancer that is a re-occurrence/metastasis of her past experience with breast cancer. We are very appreciative of all your thoughts, prayers, calls, texts, and support thus far through this crazy journey that has rocked our lives. This entire journey began 3 ½ years ago with her breast cancer diagnosis. That all seemed to be behind us and we thought we were out of the woods and living a normal crazy hectic life with our three children, Emma (9), Piper (7), and Mila (5). In early September Laura began experiencing very harsh headaches, different than any headache she had ever had before. On several occasions later that month Laura experienced loss of the ability to control her legs. She basically had to tell her legs to move otherwise she couldn’t walk. We contacted her oncologist who immediately scheduled an MRI of her brain.

 

Within hours of that MRI on October 8th the doctor called and advised us to head to the emergency room as quickly as possible. Our lives were about to be changed forever. We went into emergency mode picked up our girls from daycare, figured out an emergency baby sitter, on and on. We proceeded to be stuck in the hospital for five days and thus our journey began. Since then we have seen 4 different oncologists, 2 different radiologists and have consulted with many other doctors. Laura has completed 10 treatments of whole brain radiation. As a result she is not feeling any more side effects from the Leptomeningeal Disease, which is good. You can read more about Laura’s journey from the beginning in 2018 or skip ahead to October 8th 2021 for our current situation at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/laurawade

 

According to all of the oncologists we have consulted with, this disease is only treatable, there is no cure. Now we are at a fork in the road, a dilemma. The doctors have suggested a maintenance pill form of chemotherapy with the goal of prolonging her life while maintaining some quality of life. However, we refuse to stop there. We have decided to fight and advocate for ourselves and try something different. When traditional medicine doctors tell you they can’t save you, you must fight and try whatever you can for your three young daughters. Laura, with my full support and that of numerous friends, family, co-workers and countless others has decided to swing for the fences and give an alternative treatment a shot. This would require an extended stay at a treatment center outside the U.S. Thankfully, we have been blessed with employers who have completely supported us to the utmost through all of this. Additionally, we have been blessed with so many friends and family who have helped with meals, childcare, tasks around our house and so much more. Finally, we have been blessed with a family that has come to us and offered to live at our house and care for our children in a way that we know will be completely amazing while we are gone. God has opened so many doors for us and is truly providing so many answers to the prayers we didn’t even know we had.

 

Many of you have asked how you can help, what can you do? We humbly ask for your support with this decision. Our goal is to beat this. We believe Jesus will have a hand in that.

 

First and foremost we covet your prayers. Pray as much as you can for Laura’s healing and treatment. Pray for our girls, as they definitely have had rough patches dealing with all of this, and pray for me (Sean) as I undoubtedly feel lost at times and have no clue which way to turn. We believe your prayers are powerful and will get us through this. If you can only help in this way that is amazing and truly a blessing to us, please continue to pray for all of us.

 

Secondly, alternative treatment is expensive and insurance will not cover any of the costs. We will be traveling to Hope 4 Cancer in Tijuana, Mexico for this treatment in early January . This will require us to stay for several weeks and then return home for self-treatment and follow-up via phone calls, email, and support from the clinic over the course of 12 months. A return trip to the clinic will occur at 3 months and then again between 6-9 months for more tests, check-ups and a reevaluation. Additionally, there is another treatment center called The Hoxsey Biomedical Center in Tijuana that we also hope to connect with during our stay. We are humbly asking for your financial support with this. The treatment will cost a minimum of $47,000. We will also need to cover airfare for three trips to Hope 4 Cancer. Our current goal is to raise at least $50,000 to cover the travel and medical expenses incurred in seeking these treatments for Laura. Please consider supporting us through this site; however, if you are more comfortable with sending your support directly to us that is perfectly acceptable as well. If you wish to go that route please contact me via email or phone and we can figure out the easiest way to do this. We have set-up a separate bank account for all these funds to go into. Should we receive more funds than needed we will use them toward additional medical treatments along this journey or pass the funds along to a great organization like Pink Ribbon Girls, in the Dayton area, which has helped us in the past and so many others in their fight against cancer. It is our prayer that once we beat this we will be able to pass along some of your generosity to others in their time of need.

 

Thank you in advance for your thoughts, prayers, and if possible your donations to help us fight this crazy disease.

 

God bless,

Sean Wade