Support Taya Brown's Fight Against Cancer

We are reaching out to friends, family, and anyone willing to help or share Taya’s story.

On Friday, July 19th, my sister Taya Brown’s new journey started:

While at work, she scraped her leg. She bandaged it and went about her day, but it appeared to not want to stop bleeding. She drove herself to the ER, and it turned out it was fluid draining from her leg. The doctor started running tests

to try and determine what could be causing this. Her hemoglobin was extremely low, and she was anemic. The numbers indicated there might be internal bleeding, so they sent her to Grand Forks Hospital by ambulance that Friday afternoon.

On Monday, July 22nd, they scheduled a colonoscopy and an endoscopy and assessed her heart and kidneys, looking for any internal bleeding. That is when they found a large mass in her rectum. They took a sample and sent it in for a biopsy. While waiting for the results, the doctors planned a surgery to remove the mass on Thursday, July 25th. When the surgeon got in there, he realized the mass was larger and not in a spot he could remove it from. The surgeon had to do a stoma, and now she has a colostomy bag.

On July 30th, while still in the hospital recovering from the procedure, her white blood count elevated. After a CT scan, doctors discovered there was a blockage in her intestines, and they needed to do another surgery to correct the issue. This ended up being a twist in her intestines, and once that was corrected, her levels started to go back to more normal levels.

While still trying to recover from both procedures, they had to put in a midline for nutrients because she could not eat yet, and her arm veins were too small, so they needed to go into the neck area. After a few days of IV treatment and being back on regular foods, they determined a discharge date of August 13th.

After all that, she was excited to be back home resting and working on getting stronger. We had a setback, and Taya fell a few times while at home. Her legs were not strong enough, and her body became weak in just one day.

On August 15th, another ambulance trip to the ER in Devils Lake determined she needed to be hospitalized again. At first, we thought she could stay in Devils Lake, but her test results indicated she had an infection, and she was sent back to Grand Forks by ambulance.

More tests, more scans, more blood draws—she now shows an infection in her intestinal fluid. This requires IV antibiotic treatments. So, during this hospital stay, they worked on the infection, getting stronger, and losing some of the water weight that was gained while she was there. Doctors were concerned about her and wanted to make sure she was strong enough to go home and stay home this time.

So finally, on August 22nd, she got discharged again and was able to go home. She has had some small hiccups while at home and is still doing IV antibiotic treatments daily to fight the infection. They are doing week-long treatments at a time—7 days of treatments, and then they look at her levels and determine if another week of treatments is needed.

The mass is cancerous. It is colorectal cancer, which is different from colon cancer.

The plan is to have a colostomy while going through treatment, which will be chemo and then radiation. After that treatment, which will be about 4-5 months, they will look at surgery again. She started working with the oncology team this September, and that involved more CT scans and MRI to get all the information to decide the full plan on cancer treatment.

Taya is currently unable to work and has been off work since July 19th. With all the ambulance rides, tests, and hospital stays that she has already incurred, she is way past $50,000.00 in medical bills. Along with the treatment plan she will be going through, that amount will just grow. Once the Chemo and radiation treatments start that will involve trips to Grand Forks. She does have insurance, but it does not cover much. Not knowing when and how much she will be able to work once she gets the OK from doctors, she has a strong concern about how she will be able to afford all of this.

If you are in the position to help Taya’s journey, we would appreciate any donations you may be able to send her way. If you are unable to help monetarily, we appreciate you reading Taya’s story and could also use thoughts, prayers, visits, and good vibes. Please share Taya’s journey with others.