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Linden Stilwell's Cancer Fund

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From John Shumate, Bob Hay, and Dori Tollefson: We are asking for help for the Stilwells. Their daughter has grade four cancer. We want to raise $50,000 to offset missed work, travel expenses, and mounting medical bills. Even though they have excellent coverage, insurance doesn't cover all the rest of the financial burden. Everyone who knows Dan and Becky knows they are typically the ones who jump in to help. Would you join us in helping them?

Thanks,
John, Bob, and Dori

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Linden's Story

It all started when our daughter told us that she thought that she had a seizure during the night. Her doctor ordered a 24-hour EEG. We were relieved that the results came back normal.

Then a month later our family went to a movie together. At the beginning of the movie, she had a grand mal seizure. EMTs rushed to the movie theater to take her to the hospital. A CAT scan and MRI found a mass in her brain about the size of an avocado. The neurosurgeon told us that it was a brain tumor, potentially cancerous.

Surgery was the obvious first step, and we learned that the local hospitals didn’t have access to critical surgical equipment. We were directed to a brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota that offered what we were looking for. The surgery was performed in April 2019, and they got 95% out during a 10-hour surgery. We were completely shocked with the news that our daughter has a rare cancer (glioblastoma grade 4), revealed by the pathology report. Many emotions flooded our thoughts and hearts.

We were told the standard of care is not very effective for this particular diagnosis. Not knowing exactly what to do, we started doing research. We put everything on hold – job, school, and our social life. For the next step, we chose to use proton radiation rather than the conventional radiation as it is more targeted and safer. The closest location for that is in Knoxville, TN, so we were there for six weeks. She also received chemotherapy during that time. Through connections, God provided us with a supportive church there that gave us a couple of places to stay, emotional support, and a gift certificate for groceries.

A few weeks after coming home to SC, we discovered that there appeared to be issues with her surgical wound site not healing properly, so we went to the ER where we were told it most likely was caused by the radiation and that she needed another surgery for correcting the problem; this included removing the five original surgical plates. Six weeks of antibiotic infusions at home were ordered following the surgery.

She gets regular MRIs to monitor the activity of the remaining tumor. Unfortunately, the latest MRI shows that there is a new mass in a different part of her brain, the fourth ventricle. It's most likely a metastasis. A surgery has been scheduled to install a shunt to prevent hydrocephalus, as well as a feeding tube for needed extra nutrition. After that, we are deciding what to do for the next steps. 

Most of her medical expenses have been covered by our health care sharing ministry membership: home infusions, surgeries, hospital stays, doctors, medications. But the travel expenses and loss of work from travel, research, and caregiving have taken a toll on our finances. In addition, there are some medical expenses that insurance doesn’t cover, like special foods, medical equipment, supplies, and counseling. We have already depleted our savings and have taken out loans to pay our other bills and the non-covered medical expenses.

If you want to read more details of her story from the "updates" site CaringBridge, here is a link:
Linden's CaringBridge. (We set it up to require approval; you won't have immediate access, but just go through the steps to request approval.)
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    Organizer

    Dan Stilwell
    Organizer
    Fort Mill, SC

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