Support Karston's Healing Journey Together

Karston Cook is the son of one of my lifelong friends. On September 20th of this year, Karston and his family received unexpected news, and they have a LONG road ahead. I have organized this GOFUNDME page specifically for this family, so that they may be by his side during treatments, and not have to worry about how the bills will be paid. Karston is one of five children in this blended family. Please pray for Karston’s recovery and pray for their finances. If you feel led to help this family and to help take some financial burden off of this sweet family, they will be forever grateful. No one should have to go through this, especially a 17-year-old boy, who has his whole life ahead of him, but also the parents, Ashley (Nick) Hallmark and Catho (Lindsey) Cook. The below update is from their visit with Vanderbilt on 9/27/24 and they are scheduled for a second opinion at St. Jude’s this week (week of 9/30/24)…

“Karston’s synovial cell sarcoma update from Vanderbilt today!

With this being an extremely rare cancer, we wanted more than one opinion for treatment. We do know this doctor is a tad more surgery leaning, and St Jude’s tends to be a tad more chemo leaning.

- We did find out today that the tumor is still present in Karston's ankle. So, the previous surgery only removed what he felt like was less than half of the total tumor. According to the MRI from last June, the tumor went well into the ankle joint, was attached to 3 bones and the Achilles tendon. It has more than tripled in size since that MRI. So, we aren't entirely sure the extent now.

- He feels like the enlarged lymph nodes in his stomach do not pose a risk as of right now. He did want more imaging of the ankle and chest/lungs to completely rule out a mass in the lungs. They did do x-rays of both areas, but after he found out we were also going to St Jude, he was a little upset and we did not get the results of those x-rays. I do plan to call on Monday to get copies of those.

Here is what he gave us as a "minimum" for treatment:

He said it was a very complicated cancer and area to treat so his opinion would be to attack it 3 ways- chemo, radiation, and surgery.

-Minimum of 3 months chemo AND radiation simultaneously. (Likely with weekly appointments spanning over a couple days.)

- After 3 months, check to see how much it had shrunk

- following chemo & radiation completion, surgery to remove the remaining tumor plus any portion of affected bones, tendons, muscle, and tissue

- He would then pull muscle from the thigh area to graft into the ankle. He said after this process it will never be a "normal" ankle.

This will leave Karston with a permanent limp, enlarged ankle, and he couldn't rule out the possibility of using a cane to walk for the rest of his life, depending on how extensive the damage is.

If you know Karston, you know he lives to hunt, fish, and just be outdoors. While this treatment plan isn't the worst outcome, it definitely isn't one we would want for him. But we will do whatever we have to do to rid his body of this cancer!

We are thankful we got some idea of our minimum treatment so we can start planning what the next 3+ months looks like. But we hope to get a more extensive look at what we are dealing with next week while at St Jude. They have him set up for 11 appointments so far with plans to add in more testing once we get there and see the first doctor at clinic on Tuesday. As of right now, we have appointments scheduled for every day, Monday through Thursday, of next week and said not to rule out Friday testing. So big week ahead!”

So please…. If you feel lead to give, please do! Your help to this sweet family can help give Karston the most support, by being able to have his support system there!

More than anything, we appreciate your prayers that this treatment will be successful and that he will be able to do what he loves and have a happy, long life! He is just the sweetest kid, always happy and smiling, and doesn’t let things get him down.