Kylee's Fight For Lifesaving Surgery

This Gofundme was started for my daughter, Kylee Carnegie-Middlebrook (Kylee Doyscher), after much thought and consideration of all other options. Kylee was diagnosed in 2018, at the age of 26, with a very rare and aggressive cancer and has been fighting ever since. We are now at the point where she needs a life-saving surgery & it’s being denied to her in Canada. Dr. David Bartlett, one of the top surgeons in his field with decades of experience, has successfully done virtually hundreds of these surgeries and has agreed to perform the surgery for Kylee. Dr. Bartlett works out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Allegheny Health Network (AHN), a not-for-profit hospital in the US. The estimated cost of the surgery provided to Kylee by AHN, including all necessary treatments known at this time and the approximate 2 week stay in the hospital following surgery, is $75,000 USD, which converts to approximately $100,000 Canadian (exchange rate varies daily). We are hopeful that the surgery will be done by December 2022 at the latest. Many friends, family members & co-workers have asked us how they can help, if we are doing a fund-raiser for Kylee, etc. We decided to share her story so anyone who would like to know more and who might like to help, may do so.

Positive thoughts and prayers for Kylee are needed as well and are greatly appreciated.

Kylee’s story:

Kylee had her appendix removed in early May 2018 because of abdominal pain that was thought to be a symptom of appendicitis. Within a couple of weeks, the pathology came back as moderately-differentiated mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix – stage 4 appendiceal cancer (AC). At the time, knowing nothing about this rare disease, we just followed our local surgeon’s advice and he removed the right side of her colon and several lymph nodes, which showed no residual malignancy. Following this surgery, Kylee was referred to a team of appendix cancer specialists at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. Although the results of the second surgery showed no evidence of further disease, due to the aggressive nature of her type of AC, which also has a high recurrence rate, these specialists recommended 6 months of chemotherapy treatments, with CT scans at 3-month intervals. After the chemo regimen and with clear follow-up tests done over the next year, we hoped this nightmare was behind us. Fast forward to July 2020 - after her second planned diagnostic laparoscopy, we were given the heart-breaking news that her cancer was back. Within 2 weeks she was at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto undergoing cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with HIPEC, which members of the AC community have dubbed the “mother of all surgeries (MOAS)”. This 10-hour surgery included removing all visible cancer nodules, various organs ie. her omentum, ovaries, peritoneum, and the scraping of several more organs. This was followed by HIPEC, a procedure to wash the entire abdominal cavity for 90 minutes with a heated chemotherapy solution, to try to kill any microscopic cells that may remain, in hopes that the disease does not return. Six months later, her second follow-up CT result was a suspected recurrence and this was confirmed 3 months later after her next scan. Due to the toll that this surgery takes on a person’s body, if repeat surgery is needed, the preference is to wait 2 years, the time it takes for the body to fully recover. Now Kylee was in a “watch & wait” situation, with the plan of beginning chemo again in August 2021 in hopes of again stopping the disease from progressing. After 5 bi-weekly chemo treatments, Kylee’s health started to rapidly deteriorate and what was found was that a large blood clot had formed in the main vein that returns blood flow to the heart, as well as 2 small pulmonary emboli. This was a huge setback, causing her chemo treatments to be stopped, as these life-threatening blood clots had to be addressed. The delay in chemo treatments resulted in the cancer rapidly spreading over the next three months to the point where the disease was so extensive that the Toronto doctors no longer considered Kylee a candidate for surgery. They felt the only option at this point was maintenance chemotherapy, possibly providing Kylee with a little better quality of life, but leaving her with maybe a year to live. A second opinion from a specialist in Calgary agreed with Toronto’s opinion and he felt he couldn’t offer Kylee anything. Chemo began again in April 2022 and after 2 treatments a series of more setbacks occurred causing further treatment delays & more growth in the cancer. Kylee is currently on a new weekly chemo schedule of 4 weeks on then 2 weeks off & repeat, over the next 3 months, which we hope will stop any further growth and possibly shrink some tumours to relieve the constant pain she is now enduring, and she is anxiously awaiting a chance at surgery to save her life.