It’s difficult to even begin to write this and to put into words what has truly been some of the most difficult days for Molly, Tyler, their family, and all those who care so much for her. But here it goes... For those who know and love Molly, you know that she is a loving and hard-working mother to her 3 boys; Aiden (4), Oliver (2), and Cooper (3 months).

On Thursday October 19, Molly went to the emergency room with a week-long migraine that would not ease up. She had also been coughing up some blood so she knew something was not right. A CT scan of her head revealed a subarachnoid hemorrhage (brain bleed). She was transferred to the Neuro ICU at Miami Valley Hospital for further care and testing to figure why this would happen to a young and healthy 29 year old.

After many scans, tests, and labs, what we thought was a random brain bleed quickly turned into something much more serious. Molly has been diagnosed with a type of cancer called Choriocarcinoma. Choriocarcinoma is a rare cancer that develops from cells that were part of the placenta during pregnancy. It’s a type of gestational trophoblastic disease that occurs in around 1 in 50,000 pregnancies. Although this type of cancer is fast growing, it does typically respond very well to treatment. Treatment usually includes aggressive chemotherapy, radiation, and often surgery. Unfortunately though, Molly’s cancer has spread to her brain and lungs making this more dangerous. Two of the 6 tumors in her brain are actively bleeding causing intense headaches and left-sided paralysis. The most recent bleed led to a change in her treatment plan which further complicates her course and road to recovery. A lot is still unknown and will depend with how she continues to progress and handle the treatments. What we do know is that this will be a long and challenging journey for her and her family and we could use as much support as we can get right now. We appreciate all the love, support, and generosity we have been shown so far. In times like this, you truly realize how important family and community are. Molly was hesitant on having us post anything on social media but she decided that prayer is what she needs most. Please pray for Molly and everyone who is involved in her care. All we want is for her to beat this thing so she can continue to be the amazing mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and all the things she is to so many of us. In order to take all of the stress that we can away from her, we have created a go fund me for Molly and her family as they tackle this challenging time while molly and Tyler aren’t working. Please don’t feel obligated to donate money but if you can do anything at all, please please please keep praying. We appreciate all of the support so much.

11/7

I wanted to update everyone on Molly’s journey. These past several weeks have been a whirlwind of new experiences and emotions for both Molly and her family. Today, Molly completed her 11th radiation treatment of 15 that is projected to end next Monday. Her oncologist also planned for three weeks of a low dose chemo to be given while she received radiation. Due to the unfortunate effect that chemotherapy has on blood counts, she was not able to start her third week of induction yesterday. We plan to continue to monitor her labs and proceed with the scheduled treatment as soon as her body recovers. Even without the third week of chemo underway, her tumor marker (hCG level) has dropped from 15,000 to 309 which is incredible news.

As mentioned in my previous post, Molly lost feeling and mobility in the left side of her body after the detrimental bleed she had from one of the tumors in her brain. She is currently working tirelessly to regain her strength in order to reclaim her independence and feel more like herself. Her hard work is slowly paying off and she is making strides towards her goal every day. The genuine pride and joy that she had when telling me that she walked 7 feet in the hallway with her PT truly says it all.

Mollys strength and positivity through this awful series of events is nothing short of inspiring. No matter how crappy she’s feeling, she always has the ability to make every person that walks into her hospital room smile. She’s managed to give all of her caregivers nicknames that has been the talk of the unit since she’s been here. Her contagious positivity and strong faith in God has even inspired one of her nurses to get baptized. I can’t begin to explain how beyond proud I am of her. As much as I personally (and many others) have tried to do everything I can for her through this, I truly believe she has done more for me and every one else around her.

There aren’t enough words to explain the depth of appreciation that we have for all of you who have been praying like crazy and reaching out with kind words and support. I feel incredibly blessed and honored to be able to call the one person that we all love and care for so much my sister. We still have a very long road ahead but we have faith that she will make it through and come out even stronger than before. We appreciate the continued patience and understanding as communication from Molly and her family may not be timely. I will continue to use Facebook and the gofundme as a way to update everyone on Molly’s journey. Please keep molly in your prayers!

11/16

After three weeks and about 30 MICU ambulance rides to/from Miami valley south, Monday marked Molly’s 15th and final radiation treatment!! I don’t have the words to describe how thankful we are for the MICU team and radiation team for the incredible care that they provided to Molly over the course of her treatment. Mom and I both joked with molly that a majority of the days when they dropped her back off to her ICU room, the banter and laughter coming from Molly and the whole team sounded like they got off a party bus. The massive number of people who went out of their way to show up for Molly’s bell ringing was heartwarming and says so much about the character of each and every one of them. With the end of radiation came a new set of scans to check up on tumor progress and disease progression. The scans came with great news but also bad news as well. Good news first. Molly’s brain bleed is very stable and shows progress with the reabsorption of the blood. Along with the bleed, the tumors in her brain appear to have responded well to radiation and are shrinking. The midline shift of her brain is also decreasing as well. With these improvements, we expect to see a continued decrease in her headache pain as well as a potential improvement in her left sided mobility (with help from therapy). Not only has her brain improved, the masses in her lungs are shrinking too which is excellent news. Now for the not so great news. When doing the repeat scans, Molly’s doctors discovered two pulmonary emboli (blood clots) in her lungs as well as a DVT in her left leg. Not only does cancer increase her risk for clots, so does her decrease in movement over the past few weeks. Because of this finding, she was put on a heparin (blood thinner) drip and will remain in the ICU so she can be monitored for complications. Fast forward to last night… After two blood draws of a therapeutic level of heparin in blood, they did a repeat CT to ensure we didn’t cause any issues in her brain. They found evidence of a potential small increase in bleeding and decided to quickly stop the heparin until they gather more information and come up with another plan to treat the clots. More to come on that. Due to Molly’s white blood cell counts still being low, her oncology team has decided to hold off from starting her intense chemo regimen and continue her induction dose of chemo for the next two weeks while her body recovers. Molly is still in good spirits. Those three tiny faces on the other side of her FaceTime calls are absolutely the driving forces that she needs to fight this harder than she’s ever fought anything else before. Thank you all again for continued prayers for Molly and her family. Per Molly’s request, I will continue to use Facebook and the gofundme as a way to provide updates on Molly’s care and progress

12/30

Another long awaited update on Molly. At exactly 8 weeks in hospital, Molly was able to break out on December 14th and spend some much needed time at home. The initial discharge was delayed for many reasons. She was moved out of the ICU and to the hemonc floor December 4th but due to numerous complications and difficulty managing her blood thinner medications, she stayed for much longer than we would have liked. Due to the intensity of Molly’s chemo regimen, her oncologist has requested for her to be inpatient for most of her treatments. Because of that, her initial stint at home came to a quick end when she was readmitted on the 18th and stayed for about a week. Thankfully, Molly’s body fought like heck and she cleared chemo quickly and she was discharged and was able to be home for Christmas with her boys. The boys loved being able to spend the night with mommy on Christmas Eve and Molly and Tyler were filled with joy being together and watching the boys open the presents from Santa on Christmas morning. Mollys most recent MRI scans have shown that the radiation and chemo have cleared her brain completely of any signs of cancer. The lesions in her lungs are still present but with a few more rounds of chemo, we are hopeful those will be gone as well. Her tumor marker continues to stay below 5 so she is on the right tract towards complete remission. This week, she has been in and out of the infusion center getting injections and outpatient chemo treatments. In between outpatient treatments and appointments, Molly spends a majority of her time resting due to nausea and intense joint pain. She is due for her next (and hopefully last) scheduled admission for high dose methotrexate on January 2nd. Molly is eager to be done with the chemo and other medications so that she can feel healthy enough to focus solely on rehab and regaining her strength. This whole journey has been eye opening for everyone involved. I will speak for everyone when I say thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has shown even the slightest bit of love and support to Molly and her family. This holiday season especially was incredible and so special to Molly. Thank you to everyone including my family, Tyler’s family, Molly and Tyler’s neighbors, my amazing Dayton Children’s coworkers, MVH staff and SO MANY more for everything that they’ve done for Molly from day one and especially during the holidays. We greatly appreciate the support and continued prayers. We couldn’t do this without you all ❤️