Lori's Stage IV Colon Cancer Fund
Our sister Lori is a loving wife, an exceptional mother, an adoring Aunt and a great friend. She has always been a happy, healthy woman who tries to see the positive in all situations. But on December 1, 2015, just one day after turning 41, our healthy and happy sister was blindsided when she was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer. What started as minor stomach pain in April 2015 that she just couldn't kick turned out to be tumours from colon cancer that had spread to her liver and lungs by December of that year.
Staying positive and optimistic about the diagnosis, Lori endured one year of chemotherapy in order to shrink the tumors so she could have surgery on the growths on her liver. This would've been the first major step in winning the battle against this terrible disease. However, the surgery was abandoned in March 2017 when it was discovered that the cancer had spread to the common heptatic artery lymph node. Lori’s medical team in Manitoba has said there is nothing more that can be done due to the location of the tumours. They have recommended palliative chemotherapy to keep the cancer stable and have given her an approximate survival rate of 3 years.
If you have met Lori, you know that she radiates positivity and she never gives up. Although the Mabitoba medical team has deemed her incurable, She and her husband Dave decided that now is the time to seek medical advice, treatment and/or trials outside of Manitoba. They gathered her files and reached out to the Mayo Clinic and they responded!
Lori has received a September 12th appointment in Rochester MN! We are so excited for her and the opportunity to explore more extensive treatment options that will hopefully give her her life back. The Mayo Clinic has given Lori an approximate intital cost for testing and treatment of $30 000 Canadian. We are asking for donations on behalf of Lori and her family that will help pay for medical bills incurred in the US. Any unused funds will be held in an account for future appointments, travel, treatment and/or clinical trials.
We would like to send a heartfelt thank you to everyone that has supported Lori and her family so far. Any donations to this fund, big or small, would be greatly appreciated as our sister continues her battle against this horrible disease.
Lee-Ann & Shannon
Timeline of treatment so far
April – October 2015: 3 ultrasounds and 1 MRI
November 2015: referred to Cancer Care Manitoba
November 2015: first appointment with surgeon, PET Scan & colonoscopy
December 2015: diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. First chemo treatment
December 2016: last chemo treatment before surgery
February 2017: Portal Vein Embolization in preparation for liver resection
March 2017: Liver resection abandoned in OR due to progression of disease to the common heptatic artery lymph node
May 2017: palliative chemotherapy begins. Prognosis is incurable disease, median survival is approximately three years
