Sean's Battle With Brain Cancer

Denali Bell is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Julie McGee.

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Sean's Brain Cancer Battle

      Sean is a hardworking and kindhearted 28 year old who always puts his family first. He has been married to his wife, Julie, for the past 7 years. Together they have three beautiful children: Connor (5), Madison (4) and Hunter (1).

     This amazing family had the shock of their lives while on a camping trip to Lake Almoner on August 30th, 2015. Sean had been suffering from a headache for a few weeks, but woke up Sunday morning in excruciating pain that caused him nausea and vomiting. The pain was so severe that Julie rushed Sean to the nearest emergency room which was an hour away in Susanville, CA.
           The doctors at Banner Lassen Medical Center did tests on Seans blood which showed an abnormal white blood cell count and ran a CAT scan that showed a mass on his brain. The doctors urged Sean and Julie to transfer to a hospital closer to home immediately. They wanted to send Sean to Renowns Neurology Department via ambulance, but they allowed Julie to drive him straight there.
           After Renowns Neurology Department performed more tests and an MRI, the doctors gave Sean and Julie the devastating news that the mass on Seans brain was a 5x4x3 centimeter tumor on his left cerebellum and it needed to be removed right away. His brain surgery was set for the next morning - Tuesday, September 1st, at 10am.
(Seans MRI - the large white area is the tumor)

           The surgery took about 2 hours to complete, but it was a long and agonizing 2 hours for his wife Julie. The surgery itself went well and Sean spent the next 3 crucial days mending in the hospital before he was allowed to start his long road to recovery at home with his family.

           Before being released from the hospital on Friday, September 4th, he was given a post surgery MRI which showed “something” on the scan. The doctors were unsure if the “something” was post operative fluids or residual tumor, though they were optimistic it was just post operative fluids.
(Sean had 18 staples to close the surgery site)

       The next few weeks Sean was able to rest and recoup at home with his wife and kids. The weeks following his rest, included more bloodwork, spinal taps, MRIs, mapping, and even some new tattoos you can only get when you are fighting cancer with radiation!
On Tuesday, September 15th, Stanford confirmed Sean had an extremely rare stage IV tumor called “Medulloblastoma”. Medulloblastoma is a fast-growing, high-grade tumor. There are four subtypes of tumors that it could be, but at this time they haven’t been able to narrow down which type Sean has.
          On October 6th, Sean had a 3 hour long MRI of his spine to make sure the tumor had not seeded itself and grown more tumors within his spine. The results showed no seeds, which is great news! Unfortunately, this good news also came with the news that the “something” left in Seans brain was residual tumor and that it has doubled in size in the past month.
          October 12th, was a very informative appointment for Sean and Julie. The doctors categorized Sean as “high risk”. The results from his spinal tap show that there are cells in his spine, but they do not look cancerous. He was set to start radiation treatments 5 days a week for 6 weeks on October 19th. He would then start chemo treatments upon completing radiation. The doctors continued to express how rare this tumor is and that there isn’t a set protocol or medications to treat it, so they’re doing what they think will give Sean his best chance! Also during this appointment, the doctors at Renowns Neurology Department recommended Sean and Julie go to visit UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) to meet with James Rubenstein, Ph.D., M.D. who has some experience with this type of tumor. This will be another out of pocket expense for the McGee family, not to mention more time off work for Julie.
          The very next day on October 13th, Sean and Julie got another big shock…the doctors called to recommend that instead of starting radiation on the 19th, Sean have a second brain surgery to remove the residual tumor that is currently growing back in his brain.
          On Friday, October 16th, the doctors called Julie to schedule Seans second brain surgery which is set for Wednesday October 21st at 11am.

           Now that you’re up to date on Sean and his families situation, I want to tell you what a kind and generous family they are! They are young and happy and life threw them this curveball. Sean isn’t able to work at this time and it isn’t easy going from a two income family, to one income, with three young children. They’re already doing their part to cut back financially where they can. Any amount you give will help this family as they go through one of the hardest battles anyone could be faced with.

Even if you’re not able to give at this time, please share your love for this family and this gofundme account so that others may donate!

 

THANK YOU!!!