On November 18, 2019 Chris went to sick call with our doctor and was referred to the ER with a resting heart rate of 144.  A chest X-ray revealed masses in his chest, so he was admitted to the hospital.  They did a biopsy of one of the masses in his chest. He had CT scans and MRIs on almost his entire body which revealed he has three tumors in his left lung, one in his right, tumors on both kidneys with a thrombus extending into the vena cava. He also has two tumors in his right gluteal mass pushing on his sciatic nerve in addition to a tumor on his right hip. The pathology reports revealed that Chris has metastatic sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma. In plain terms he has stage 4 kidney cancer, and it is rare.  In fact it accounts for less than 1% of all kidney cancer cases and isn’t even a defined category. It is the “other” category. Because he has tumors on both kidneys and because this is an aggressive cancer, surgery is not a viable treatment option at this time. He will be traveling to M.D. Anderson in Houston, Texas for some further evaluation.  That will take place in January. Chris is only 38 years old and this is a complete shock to all of us.  We know we have a long road ahead of us. In spite of all of this, there are many things to be thankful for. The bone scan and brain scans came back CLEAR of cancer! We are thankful for your support through a contribution, prayers, and messages of encouragement as Chris begins his journey to fight cancer!