Kelci was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer, Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma, back in April. Her and her fiancé were planning their wedding and decided to move to Alaska. After a while, they found a place to live close to his new job and put a month of rent down while my grandson finished up the school year. During this time Kelci had some recurring pain in her ribs. She went to the doctor where they took an X-ray which showed something suspicious. After a long wait, more tests and appointments, she got the diagnosis. I remember reading about this awful cancer after she told me and bawling my eyes out thinking this can’t be true. The plan was surgery to remove the tumor followed by radiation. Since they were planning on about a month of recovery before radiation, they decided her fiancé would start working in Alaska and get their home settled, coming back here to be with Kelci for the surgery. Surgery went well. They got the tumor out, having to take parts of her ribs and spine along with it, and adding rods and screws along her spine. Her fiancé eventually went back to Alaska to work while we stayed here for recovery. Kelci was a trouper and we thought she was through the worst of it. Well, two days before we were to fly to Alaska, the oncologist strongly suggested 6 months of chemotherapy with 6 weeks of radiation. They couldn’t do this regimen at the cancer center near her new home. So here we are in Oregon at a dear friend’s house while she gets chemo and radiation. As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for Kelci especially not being with her fiancé. We’re hoping to ease the burden of some bills so that he can come and stay more frequently and lift her spirits. Once she is done with chemo and radiation, she can finally be in her new home in Alaska, coming back every 4 months for imaging and check ups with the cancer team here.