Monday, September 30th, Katelyn went to the ER with chest pain, shortness of breath, and just overall feeling like crap. The last time she felt this way was when she was pregnant with NovaLeigh and she had a Pulmonary Embolism two years ago, so she thought that may be what was happening again. After getting a CAT scan it showed there was no PE and instead showed she had a huge mass in her chest. She left the ER that day with so many questions and fears. Next, she had an appointment with oncology, who then set up a PET scan and a biopsy, which we then waited almost a month for results for. When the results finally came in, it showed Kately had Primary Mediastinal B Cell Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. The mass was too large to operate on, and typically they don't operate anyways with this specific type of cancer because the cancer cells would then just find a new home in another lymph node. She then got a biopsy of her bone marrow to be sure it wasn't in that, which would put her at stage 4. Thankfully the mass was localized just in her mediastinal region, and nowhere else so was stage 1!!! In November Katelyn started Chemotherapy, in this specific type of chemo, she needed to spend one week in the hospital, to receive the R-EPOCH over a 5 day stretch, then she got two weeks off then back to do another. This lasted for 6 cycles, a total of 18 weeks. After. the first 9 weeks, they did a PET scan to see how everything was going, Katelyn's response was limited but still responding putting her at a Deuvalle score of 4. Typically they like to see this score between 1-3, so 4 wasn't great news, but it wasnt as bad as a 5. which would be no response. Katelyn finished out her last 3 cycles, then again went back in for a PET scan, Unfortunately with this scan, it showed not only did the chemo stop working, but the cancer actually was more reactive then it was in January, putting her at a Deuvalle score of 5. Meaning the last 3 chemo cycles did nothing. While this is very discouraging, there are other options. As hopeful as we were that this was done, and we were going to start the road to Remission, that is not the case. Next steps in her fight against this horrible disease will be CAR T Cell therapy. In order to be eligible for this, she has to keep her cancer at a minimum which she was just on the line, so to bridge as they called it, she will be doing a type of chemo that they dont expect will cure the cancer, just keep it at bay until she can do the CAR T. This is done in Chicago, she will have to go down, so they can draw blood and send it to a company that pulls the t cells from her blood and essentially turns them into supercells that will fight the cancer. This can take some time, so she will get to go home for the few weeks that this takes. Then back to Chicago to get the cells put back into her body. This process takes about three weeks, then she will have to stay local to Chicago for another couple of weeks to be sure she has no negative reaction to it. This is a hard program to get into, you have to jump through hoops for insurance to approve it, the process can take 3-6 months. In this time, brent will be off work to help with Katie and the kids. As well as katelyn has been off work since November and Brent has been able to work very minimally. We appreciate, all donations and mostly Prayers for my sister as she fights the fight of her life.