Kristy’s Battling Lung Cancer (9 Brain Metastases)

Latest update - 12/05/21

I was asked to update for my mom. In May, she had 9 lesions in her brain and one spot in her lung. In October, she had a scan that showed the brain lesions had shrunk and the lung had not progressed. The largest of the brain metastases was 4x5mm. 

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, she had another MRI. The findings are attached. She now has 15 to 20 lesions and the largest is 12x12mm. Her CT shows no spreading elsewhere and no significant change in the lung. 

She has decided to start chemotherapy again tomorrow and pray that it crosses the blood brain barrier and stops progression. Odd are about 20% that it actually crosses that barrier. 

Continued thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated. 

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Original Post 

About 2 months ago, our mom (Kristy Fredrick) had a scan by her oncologist (she previously had two cancers). During this scan, they found a spot on her lung, and thought it was pneumonia or returning breast cancer. They gave her antibiotics twice and wanted to recheck in 6 weeks to see if the spot had shrunk. A week before her 6 week appointment, Lindsay took her to the ER for neurological symptoms, confusion, memory issues, using the wrong words, saying words backwards, etc. The ER did a scan, and their diagnosis put us all in shock.  They said cancer had metastasized in her brain. They transported her to Wichita and did a biopsy on the lung (the lung spot is 3 inches). They said that she has a total of 9 lesions in her brain. Started steroids to reduce inflammation and seizure meds to help prevent a dangerous situation.  They let her go home and we took her to her oncologist Monday. He said it is incurable once it has metastasized in the brain, regardless of type. With no treatment, he said hospice would be recommended and in his opinion, she could have 1 to 6 months. She did start whole brain radiation to attempt to shrink those spots, to prolong her time, and hopefully keep her quality of life as long as possible. We took her back to her oncologist last week and he said this is her 3rd different cancer. Small cell lung cancer. She will have a total of 10 radiation sessions and then have another scan to see if they have shrunk them and hopefully make her prognosis a little better. If she does respond, they can continue to check her brain and use cyber knife treatments to treat individual spots that may act up. It is rare, but occasionally patients live 10 years with this situation. Her previous cancers were rare, as is this one. We are praying for rare results from treatment as well. I have been contacted a couple of alternative medicine centers as well. They highly recommended she continue the radiation to try and gain more time. Patients with similar cases have success with intravenous vitamin C and other natural treatments. 

Those who know our family know how difficult this has been. They also know thatwe do not like to ask for help. We don’t have anywhere else to turn. Although our mom will get FMLA, this is significantly less than what she makes per week. We just want her to be able to focus on staying positive and we do not want her to worry about her financial situation. Two weeks of FMLA will only cover her rent. As anyone can imagine, the rest won’t go far either. If we can go above our goal, alternative medicine is possibly  where the rest would go. We want to keep her around as long as possible and help her keep making memories with her grandchildren. Even the smallest contribution will help  and be greatly appreciated. If you don’t have the means to contribute, we just ask you to share this with as many people as you can.  

Thank you and God Bless,

Brandi Lewis & Lindsay Ford