5/10

Update❤️

A couple of weeks ago, we were blessed with the opportunity to spend a week together as a family at a beautiful Airbnb in Vermillion. The house had an indoor pool—which, as you can imagine, was absolutely amazing! It was such a special time for us to be together, recharge, and make memories.

While we were there, my dear friend Jen Hamman gifted us something truly priceless: she found, booked, and paid for a professional photographer to capture some beautiful moments of our family. Thank you, Jen! We are beyond grateful. These photos mean more to us than words can express.

Capture Photography by Stacey Wilfing

That week also gave my mom the time and space to make an important decision—whether to move forward with treatment. This past Monday, she officially began treatment. She is currently taking oral chemo and undergoing five days of radiation each week at Akron General. Due to her insurance coverage, we are traveling to Akron rather than Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. I’ve had several people ask about this, so I just wanted to clarify—it all comes down to insurance, unfortunately. (And believe me, I have plenty of thoughts about that…but I’ll save those for another time.)

As we move forward, we’ve reached a point where we need help. Starting next week, Shannon will be taking a leave of absence from work to stay home and help care for Mom and attend her appointments. We are humbly asking once again for support. We understand that not everyone is in a position to help financially, and we sincerely appreciate your prayers, love, and continued kindness just as much.

We will continue to share updates as we’re able. Please don’t hesitate to reach out—we are not bothered. Your love, prayers, and messages mean the world to us. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. ❤️❤️❤️

4/11/25

We wanted to share an update about our mom.

While this isn’t the news we hoped to share, it’s something we’ve all had a feeling might be coming.

Yesterday, our mom was officially diagnosed with glioblastoma—an aggressive and fast-growing type of brain tumor. It’s a difficult cancer to treat because of how quickly it spreads. Treatment will involve radiation five days a week along with a chemotherapy pill. Even with treatment, glioblastoma is known to return—and often more aggressively. As her oncologist said, this is a mean cancer.

Because she’s still healing from surgery, treatment won’t begin for about a month. In the meantime, we’re focusing on what matters most: spending time together as a family in our home—her childhood home—just like she wants.

More than anything, please continue to keep our mom in your thoughts and prayers. Your support means the world to us.

Update:

Sandy is home and doing well! Next step will be the oncologist to determine a treatment plan.

We will update soon!

On January 26th, our mother went into the ER with stroke like symptoms. She was given TNK to prevent another stroke, which actually caused a brain bleed. It was discovered that she was having multiple seizures an hour as well as having nausea anytime she moved. Once an MRI was done, the doctors discovered that there was a mass but because of the bleeding, they couldn't get a good idea of what was going on. She went through therapy at a rehab facility and came home on February 21st.

Since that time, she has had two MRIs. This last one was more clear and the doctor confirmed to us last week that she does in fact have a malignant tumor in her temporal lobe. And never actually had a stroke.

She will have a craniotomy done on Wednesday 4/2/2025 in Akron to biopsy parts of the tumor. Unfortunately, this is not a tumor he can just go in and remove. She will have to have radiation and possibly chemo. Once the biopsy is done, we will have a better idea of how to treat this. She has a long road ahead. But she is up for this fight and we are here to support her every step of the way.

Family and friends have asked how they can help, well, the time has come that we need to ask for help. Due to our moms medical insurance, everything has to be done in Akron, including treatments. Pam has run out of sick time, and our mom has received her last paycheck. We are asking for any financial help that you can offer. Any amount is helpful.

Our mother has taken care of every person in our family that has gotten sick. We would like her to focus on fighting this and not anything that will cause stress, especially financial stress. We appreciate any help.

Xoxo,

Shannon and Pam