RUCK CANCER FUNDRAISER FOR KAREN KING

Karen King is battling Multiple Myeloma, which is cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells. Myeloma cells inhibit your body's ability to fight infections and also affect your bones, leading to bone pain, thinning bones and broken bones. All of which Karen has faced, and this is her 2nd round of fighting this disease! While there have been life-changing physical effects due to having Myeloma and going through treatment, the financial effects have also been vast and life-altering. Below is a little glimpse into who Karen is, the fight that she's been waging, and a look at how this has effected her financially. Please give generously and know that 100% of the money you donate will go directly to Karen to help her meet her financial and treatment needs.

About Karen:

First, she's the mom of 7 biological kids (but loves to gather the extras!). She loves to cook and feed others, she's a certified health coach that has studied nutrition for almost 30 yrs. She's also an ordained minister who has a passion for seeing people whole: spirit, soul and body. She has a vision to have a ministry that helps others get healed and free in every area of their lives. She hopes to one day have land to start a healing ranch to bring this vision to pass!

Financial Impact:

"After the initial diagnosis and then remission, I continued to have upper back pain which didn’t resolve. This caused me to not be able to stand for long periods of time without taking meds or to sit for long periods of time. Sitting was actually more difficult and exacerbated this pain. I knew that I would not be able to tolerate a desk job or sit in an office for long periods of time. I was able to help with in the kitchen for short periods but would eventually needs meds to help."

"My son bought a second house for me to move into and rent from him recently, which helped reduce my rent payment. Since the recent test result and treatments, several of my kids are covering that payment and my daughter has moved in to help me physically as well as contribute to finances."

"Using alternative therapies like IV's helped me recover more quickly, but they are not covered by insurance so I am now in debt over $15,000. I haven’t been able to resume these therapies like I need because of the high costs of these therapies as well as the higher cost of living that is happening now. "

Her Cancer Story: (In her own words)

After feeling like I tore a rotator cuff playing volleyball with my kids in July 2019, I went to see an orthopedic doctor. After trying several remedies, it was apparent that something else was going on, so the doctor ordered a CT scan. After a few weeks, I had my follow up appointment. The doctor was visibly upset, as he just received the report right before my appointment. When he carried over a box of tissues to where I was sitting, I knew something was wrong. “You’re not going to tell me it’s cancer, are you doctor?” “I wouldn’t kid about a thing like that,” he said. After reviewing the report with me, I assured him that I was ok, and that my purpose in life had not been completed yet. I was shaken but not despondent. I walked to my car and called my sister. She encouraged me and asked if I would like her to contact the rest of the family, which I did. From there I called my kids, and we met that evening to discuss this news.

As it turns out, my dad has a close friend who lives near him in Georgia who is an oncologist specialist. Dad contacted him on my behalf and the doctor offered to call me to talk about the diagnosis. Dr. Radhakrishna Vemuri, M.D is his name, and providentially not only was his specialty oncology, he himself had a diagnosis of cancer in the brain. Not only did this give him a perspective unique to most oncology doctors, but he felt it one of his missions to inspire hope in cancer patients. He even wrote a book called “Hope For Cancer Patients at All Stages of Illness.” As one can imagine, the conversation we had that evening impacted me greatly. I got off that call encouraged and hopeful, which made my talk with my kids so much easier as well as helping me to communicate that message with them. I would be alright, I told them.

The weeks that followed were interesting, to say the least. I informed my place of employment, who made me go on immediate FEMLA, or short-term disability. (For several weeks prior, I repeatedly asked to work from home to accommodate the severe pain I was in physically. I couldn’t even carry a lunch bag, as the pain in one shoulder started to radiate across my chest into my other shoulder. In hindsight, it’s obvious why- it wasn’t a tear, but my bones were breaking due to the multiple myeloma. My requests were met with a resistance and an obvious callousness to my pain. In fact, my boss suggested I put protein bars in my desk if I couldn’t carry a lunch bag.)

Within days of leaving work, I woke up and was unable to walk. I literally had to crawl to the bathroom, which because of the broken clavicles, made the pain almost unbearable. I was awaiting my initial appointment with an oncologist, so this was unexpected and scary.

Eventually I met with Dr. Scott Cross who would become my oncologist. He was recommended to me and I came to find him to be highly respected by others in his field. He laid out my treatment plan which consisted of radiation followed up with a “cocktail” of chemotherapy medications. He talked me about my diagnosis and let me know we would have to do a full MRI before moving forward with treatment. The MRI would be used to document the extent of the cancer and the bones that were broken due to the cancer. He also prescribed me pain meds which helped me function and move a little easier. Unfortunately, getting the MRI done proved to be challenging. Because of the broken bones and compression fractures in my spine, I was unable to tolerate laying on my back for even a moment, much less an hour for the MRI to be done in the lumbar, thoracic and cervical regions of my back, even with heavy duty pain meds. The alternative was to admit me to the hospital and be sedated for the MRI. It took several days to get this done, but it was successful. I also met Dr. Paul Mitchell who was the neurosurgeon that would treat me. It was obvious that I needed a kyphoplasty, which is a process of injecting a cement like substance in between the vertebrae where the cancer had eroded areas of the spine. The kyphoplasty was scheduled quickly and within a short time I was up and walking around with more stability and less pain.

While I was in the hospital, I started the process for radiation which consisted of mapping the body, and I received a treatment before I was discharged. Once I was discharged from the hospital, I went through a couple weeks of radiation treatments and then moved into the chemotherapy treatments.

Little by little the pain decreased, and my numbers came into normal range. I was able to support my body by getting nutritional IV’s and using healthy supplements. I was also receiving microcurrent treatments from a practitioner that helped me greatly by treating me at a greatly reduced cost. All of these made such a huge difference in my ability to tolerate conventional oncology treatments. By summer of 2020, I was able to function normally.

Starting November of 2021, I experienced some things that caused me some very difficult emotional months. By the spring of 2022, the lambda light chain numbers, which are an indicator of multiple myeloma started to climb and I started having back pain which necessitated the use of pain meds again to function. In September, I went in for another MRI to check the back pain and it was discovered that I had a fracture in my spine in the thoracic region. I was told by the oncologist to get to the ER immediately. They wanted me admitted to the hospital for another MRI and this was the quickest way to facilitate that. They were also concerned about spinal cord impingement and possibility of needing emergency surgery. I was able to get the MRI and they found a lesion at T10 which caused the fracture. Drs. Cross and Mitchell decided that radiation would be the best solution to shrink the lesion/tumor and kill the cancer in that area. They saw that there were some bone shards that could possibly damage the spinal cord if anything more invasive was attempted. I was again mapped for radiation before I was discharged and then scheduled for radiation treatments for the next couple weeks. I also started a new round of chemotherapy treatments to bring those lambda light chain numbers down. As of now, the numbers are dropping and getting closer into range. A follow up MRI will be scheduled in the next few months to check the status of the fracture in the spine. Since I have been able to somewhat reduce the pain meds and the multiple myeloma numbers are dropping, I believe the spine is healing. Since I have had a total of 4 medications for chemotherapy, I am slotted to be eligible for a newer therapy called CAR-T. This therapy shows promise for longer-term remission for multiple myeloma patients. I will stay on this current treatment for several months and then another medication will be used for maintenance. Dr. Cross has advised me that as I am on the maintenance meds, the CAR-T therapy will continue to be refined and improved which will benefit me in the long run.

A Call To Action:

Please support Karen in her fight! Donate to help her win this battle!!