Help Us Beat Adriana's Brain Cancer

Hi everyone, some of you may or may not know Adriana. If you do know her, you know she’s one of the most caring, loving, and honest people you’ll ever meet. She’s a fantastic mother, partner, sister, daughter, aunt, niece and granddaughter. Adriana has dedicated her life to helping people and now she needs help in return.

My name is Kevin, and I’m Adriana’s boyfriend. We’ve known each other since 2016 and have been together for the past three years. We have two beautiful children together. Her first son (my stepson), Noah, is six years old and our son, Patrick, is seven months old. He was born on January 5th, 2022. She’s a boy-mom and loves it with all of her heart. Adriana is one of the best moms I’ve ever known. She puts her kids and family before everything because that is most important to her. We frequently talked about getting married, and I planned on proposing very soon. I just had to work up the courage to ask her dad’s permission. Adriana is a licensed mental health counselor and loves being able to help her clients get through their mental illnesses and the challenges that come with that. She immigrated to this country with her parents and brother from Ecuador when she was only a little girl. Adriana made something of herself because of her relentless self-discipline and dedication. She was excelling in her career and living the American dream.

Beginning in June 2022, Adriana started complaining of headaches, neck pain, and eventually started vomiting. It got to the point where it was bad enough that we took her to the emergency room. The physicians and hospital staff that tended to her stated it was dehydration, gave her some fluids, and soon after discharged her. A short time later, the symptoms came back, and she asked to be taken back to the ER (this time to a different hospital). Unfortunately, she tested positive for COVID, so they did some treatments in the ER and discharged her. Then another couple of weeks or so later, the same symptoms resurfaced again, unbearable neck pain, vomiting, and headaches. We took her back to the ER where she was most recently treated, and this time they stated that her symptoms were due to a UTI that went untreated and became infected. They treated the UTI and discharged her.

Thinking the worst was behind us, Adriana began to experience the initial symptoms she had and tried to treat it through various means: chiropractor, acupuncture, different pain creams, massages, etc., but nothing seemed to work and even lessen the effects of what she was experiencing. Throughout this time, I worked full time while Adriana was taking care of Patrick and Noah from home (Noah was on summer break from school). In addition to taking care of the children, Adriana worked remotely from home doing Telehealth therapy sessions with her clients in between the kids' naps. To say she is one of the strongest people I know would be an understatement.

On Saturday July 30th, our families traveled to Florida to celebrate Patrick’s baptism in a beautiful ceremony on a picture-perfect summer day. Adriana had been going to sleep early, napping frequently, and doing her best to suppress the physical pain she had been dealing with so she could enjoy the moment surrounded by loved ones.

On Thursday August 4th 2022, things began to take a turn for the worse and changed our lives as we know it. It was like any other morning for me that day; I said goodbye to the kids, told Adriana I loved her, kissed them goodbye and left for work.

Adriana was experiencing the painful symptoms again and decided to call her dad and asked him to take her to the ER. As soon as she arrived to the ER, she became unresponsive and was immediately put on a ventilator. I received notice of what was transpiring and left work to head to the hospital as they began doing tests to figure out what was happening. After doing a CT scan, it was revealed that Adriana had an extremely aggressive and fast-growing tumor on her brain. It was located on her Thalamus and started going into her brain stem. It couldn’t have been in a worse place. Measures were immediately taken to save her life such as putting a drain in her head to drain the fluid that was building up and relieving pressure from the tumor.

The doctors soon realized that the tumor had started to bleed before she got to the hospital and that’s what caused this significant neurological damage. She couldn’t speak, signal, acknowledge or give any purposeful responses for the medical team. She was basically in a vegetative state because of how bad this tumor had gotten. The good news is that we had an operation on Monday (8/15/22), and the Surgeons removed most of the tumor with only some residual tumor remaining. Adriana responded well to the surgery and continues to make progress. She is breathing independently and still has a feeding tube because of her current neurological state. The removed tumor was sent out for a biopsy and the results showed that Adriana is currently suffering from Glioblastoma or stage 4 brain cancer. It is a very fast-growing and aggressive cancer. We have a follow-up with an Oncologist in a couple of weeks to determine the next steps, which will most likely be radiation and chemotherapy.

Adriana is currently at a neurological rehab, where they are working hard to improve her physical health. Her eyes are open, and she continues to make progress. Adriana can shake her head yes or no, squeeze and make other motions with her right hand. She is still in a wheelchair, but she’s taking small strides forward every day, and as hard as it is to remain patient, we are happy to see that, and it gives us hope. She will be going home in the next two weeks, and we will continue outpatient therapy with her. We are in the process of converting our living room into a makeshift hospital and handicap-accessible living space for her.

We want to ensure Adriana has the best possible treatment to help with her recovery. Life will change drastically and things will be extremely different for everyone involved. Still, her family and I are willing to do whatever it takes to help Adriana get healthy again. Whatever is collected from this Gofundme will go towards whatever her insurance doesn’t cover from her hospital stay/aftercare/in-home therapy/ childcare and Adriana’s expenses she had before being unable to work.

Adriana is going to have a long road to recovery, and it is going to take time. There will be setbacks and triumphs, but we believe she will make it because of her strength. We know she can beat this.

Please help us give Noah and Patrick the chance to tell their mom how much they love her. This experience has been devastating for our family, but we are optimistic, praying daily, and hopeful miracles will continue to happen.

Whether you donate or share this page, it would support our family and is greatly appreciated. Even if you cannot donate at this time but are reading this, please keep Adriana in your prayers because we know how powerful that can be. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much. Words can’t explain how grateful we are for everyone's prayers and support!

We will continue to update this page on Adriana’s progress.