Support for Sister-in-Law's ICU Recovery

Hey guys. Some of you already know my wife has Non Hodgkins Follicular Lymphoma. That’s an incurable blood cancer. On June 28th we had her first annual checkup with her oncologist and all her lymph nodes remained the same size where the cancer is located. That’s the best we could ask for because that means the lymph nodes where the cancer is located hadn’t grown. No growth or symptoms means no treatment needed.

Her cancer is located in her chest, neck, colon, spleen. Last month she has been dealing with uncontrollable pain. We thought it was from a recent car accident she was in.

On July 26th I convinced her to go see the opening of Deadpool. My thought was if she’s in pain maybe some laughter could help. After the movie I had to take her to the ER. This was our 4th visit in a month and 3rd visit in 9 days.

That was Friday July 26th. Since then she has had paralysis. Not able to move her limbs. Unable to use the bathroom on her own as well. They did an MRI with contrast and found two tumors and one lesion on her spine. The tumors came back as an aggressive form of lymphoma. Her follicular lymphoma had a transformation. It’s very rare for that to occur.

In Boise all they could do was try to manage her pain but that came with many challenges as most pain medicine doesn’t help nerve pain. They had to resort to a combination of medicines including Ketamine. Nothing helped as she felt fire and electric currents running through her body from the nerves being compressed by the two tumors.

She was taken from Boise to Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City Utah by medivac at 3am on August 3rd.

On Sunday August 4th after being in Utah they did an emergency spine surgery and removed her backbone in sections c4-c7 to assist in relieving the pressure on one of her nerves. They also put in a rod and bolts to make space for future chemo therapy in hopes that if she got swelling in that area, it won’t put pressure on the nerve. The surgery is considered a very painful one.

Yesterday August 6th she started her first of 4 radiation treatments. Because her pain was intolerable she wasn’t able to do the treatments awake so they had to put her on general anesthesia and leave her sedated overnight and through today so they can get the radiation started. She also had a PET scan and X-rays today along with her second day of radiation. She is now off the ventilator and progress is being made.

This is the start of a long road to recovery. We’re trying to take it one day at a time and stay positive. The goal is to get her moving again and to start chemo this Saturday if her neurosurgeon is ok with that. Typically they’d wait 3 weeks for the body to recover and heal but we are on the clock and need to proceed since the cancer is an aggressive type. The aggressive cancer is called DLBCL short for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

My wife and I had to stop our jobs to prioritize her recovery. Because of this, my brother had set up a GoFundMe to assist us while we are here and away from home.

I was hesitant at first to ask for help because I’ve never had help this way and have always been independent. I decided to have no ego and allow ppl to help us if they can and would like to.

I understand it’s hard times for many people and families these days with rising costs everywhere. If you are able to help I’m going to link the fundraiser and all help is deeply appreciated. If you are unable to, that’s ok too. Prayers and wishful thinking is strong and powerful and we’d be happy for that too.

Thank you all for taking the time to hear me out. Having been in this situation the last 12 days with all the emotions, daily challenges, it’s really changed my outlook in life. I’ve really learned what I’ve always taken for granted. My wife is my only priority right now and getting the treatment she needs to have a successful recovery is all that matters to me. It’s surreal that one day she’s fine “mostly” then the next 12 days brought many challenges. The road ahead will have more ups and downs and will be emotional, but I’m keeping faith, trying to stay strong for her, and trying to have the right mindset… one day at a time.

Kindest Regards,

The Freeman Family