Help The Hanson/Corwin Family
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Hello everyone! My husband, Erik, has been having some very serious and unexpected health issues.
This all started at the beginning of June when a tumor was found on Erik's sinus. Since then we have seen many specialists and he has had who knows how many tests/procedures/biopsies done. Apparently, this is an extremely rare tumor (angiofibroma), especially in a male of his age. Additionally, its growth rate just makes it even more rare. Add in all his other health issues, and you've pretty much got a medical anomaly!
I'm sure you're thinking, "what the heck have these docs been waiting for?!". We have an EXCELLENT surgical team...they wanted to get all the facts and develop the best surgical plan with the least risks possible. And they should've had plenty of time to do that if this was a typical case; however, we all know Erik isn't normal lol. Over the weekend of August 10th, his pain was increasing, he started having a lot of numbness and tingling in his face and double vision. The ENT sent him straight to the ER where he was admitted. They got a new MRI and CT and once the doc saw the scan results, everything changed. Doc saw on the new scans that this tumor is abnormally fast-growing (20% growth within a month) and becoming quite invasive. This means that 1.) The removal can no longer be endoscopic (so our "quarterback" surgeon is going to change which we are really bummed about), 2.) His surgical plan needs to be expedited, and 3.) They wanted to do another biopsy. Basically, from the first biopsy, the pathologist had a difficult time even naming Erik's tumor and decided that it was most like an angiofibroma. Seeing this rapid growth/invasiveness, the doc is concerned that maybe it is something else and/or has become cancerous. So, he had his second surgical biopsy that week. We have not received the results of that yet. Regardless of the results, this thing needs to be removed, so we will continue to move forward. We meet our new "quarterback" surgeon next Friday, August 23rd, and we will know a lot more after that. We are hoping for surgery the week after that. There are a lot of risks with this surgery including loss of vision. Once surgery is complete, they are estimating around 3 months for recovery.
Sooooo, there ya go! As you can imagine, this has been another very trying time for us. We are overwhelmed, stressed, scared. Erik has surprisingly, taken this all in stride (another "Erik" thing). Docs and nurses love him (most the time) because he almost always has a smile on his face and cracks jokes constantly. Adding to our stress is the financial aspect. This has been going on now for about 2-1/2 months, during which time we have already missed quite a bit of work for Erik's nosebleeds/feeling awful, doctor's appointments, medical tests & procedures and even a few hospital stays. We are private people and we do not like to advertise our personal business, but we are just to the point where we do not have any other options. We have emptied what little savings we had and are trying to be proactive and not wait until we are in so deep that we can't dig out before asking for help. We set the amount we are trying to raise based on all our monthly bills and groceries for 3 months. We are praying that he will recover as the doctors are hoping in that period of time. We do not want anyone to feel obligated or to do without in order to help us.
We are so thankful for all the kind words and prayers. Those prayers are powerful! Thank you for taking the time to read!
All our love,
Erik & Rebecca
PS Erik has named his tumor Zarblatt (because he's an alien from outer space and doesn't belong there)
PSS Erik wants everyone to know how special he is...due to the uniqueness of his case, they will be writing about him in medical journals lol
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This all started at the beginning of June when a tumor was found on Erik's sinus. Since then we have seen many specialists and he has had who knows how many tests/procedures/biopsies done. Apparently, this is an extremely rare tumor (angiofibroma), especially in a male of his age. Additionally, its growth rate just makes it even more rare. Add in all his other health issues, and you've pretty much got a medical anomaly!
I'm sure you're thinking, "what the heck have these docs been waiting for?!". We have an EXCELLENT surgical team...they wanted to get all the facts and develop the best surgical plan with the least risks possible. And they should've had plenty of time to do that if this was a typical case; however, we all know Erik isn't normal lol. Over the weekend of August 10th, his pain was increasing, he started having a lot of numbness and tingling in his face and double vision. The ENT sent him straight to the ER where he was admitted. They got a new MRI and CT and once the doc saw the scan results, everything changed. Doc saw on the new scans that this tumor is abnormally fast-growing (20% growth within a month) and becoming quite invasive. This means that 1.) The removal can no longer be endoscopic (so our "quarterback" surgeon is going to change which we are really bummed about), 2.) His surgical plan needs to be expedited, and 3.) They wanted to do another biopsy. Basically, from the first biopsy, the pathologist had a difficult time even naming Erik's tumor and decided that it was most like an angiofibroma. Seeing this rapid growth/invasiveness, the doc is concerned that maybe it is something else and/or has become cancerous. So, he had his second surgical biopsy that week. We have not received the results of that yet. Regardless of the results, this thing needs to be removed, so we will continue to move forward. We meet our new "quarterback" surgeon next Friday, August 23rd, and we will know a lot more after that. We are hoping for surgery the week after that. There are a lot of risks with this surgery including loss of vision. Once surgery is complete, they are estimating around 3 months for recovery.
Sooooo, there ya go! As you can imagine, this has been another very trying time for us. We are overwhelmed, stressed, scared. Erik has surprisingly, taken this all in stride (another "Erik" thing). Docs and nurses love him (most the time) because he almost always has a smile on his face and cracks jokes constantly. Adding to our stress is the financial aspect. This has been going on now for about 2-1/2 months, during which time we have already missed quite a bit of work for Erik's nosebleeds/feeling awful, doctor's appointments, medical tests & procedures and even a few hospital stays. We are private people and we do not like to advertise our personal business, but we are just to the point where we do not have any other options. We have emptied what little savings we had and are trying to be proactive and not wait until we are in so deep that we can't dig out before asking for help. We set the amount we are trying to raise based on all our monthly bills and groceries for 3 months. We are praying that he will recover as the doctors are hoping in that period of time. We do not want anyone to feel obligated or to do without in order to help us.
We are so thankful for all the kind words and prayers. Those prayers are powerful! Thank you for taking the time to read!
All our love,
Erik & Rebecca
PS Erik has named his tumor Zarblatt (because he's an alien from outer space and doesn't belong there)
PSS Erik wants everyone to know how special he is...due to the uniqueness of his case, they will be writing about him in medical journals lol
ReplyForward
Organizer
Rebecca Hanson
Organizer
Williamsburg, OH