Karens Rigvir Virotherapy
Donation protected
In July as we were packing to go on a much needed vacation, Karen started complaining of dizziness & stomach pain. Within an hour she threw up a litre of blood. We called 911 and were off to Emergency; the Long Beach Memorial staff were excellent and made her as comfortable as possible.
She had an ultasound endoscopy which revealed the problem. A poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma tumor in the stomach that was way too close to the top of the stomach near the esophagus .
Prognosis: Chemotherapy followed by removal of the stomach with follow up chemo.
For those of you who know Karen and I, we live a healthy lifestyle and the battle she had earlier in her life with Hodgkins Disease and the subsequent radiation damaged her heart and doctors believe may have caused this tumor.
The chemo she underwent almost killed her and she had to go back to emergency twice and then be admitted for
further observation and treatment . She had become very anemic due to blood loss and it took transfusions and medication to get her stabilized.
She is and has always been a fighter. As such she cannot see giving up a part of her body to this disease. After much research she has found an alternative that shows some hope.
Rigvir Virotherapy is the treatment option she is looking into and as she was too ill from the chemo and had to wait till her blood levels were stable enough to continue, her window of opportunity to beat this is narrowing and this therapy is not available in the United States.
She has not been able to work for six months now and medical bills are mounting and insurance will not cover this therapy.
We have been truly blessed with supportive friends and family to help us with meals and rides to school for our son but now are reaching out for help.
Her oncologist and the two surgeons we have consulted say this an aggressive cancer that needs to be treated now!
She had an ultasound endoscopy which revealed the problem. A poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma tumor in the stomach that was way too close to the top of the stomach near the esophagus .
Prognosis: Chemotherapy followed by removal of the stomach with follow up chemo.
For those of you who know Karen and I, we live a healthy lifestyle and the battle she had earlier in her life with Hodgkins Disease and the subsequent radiation damaged her heart and doctors believe may have caused this tumor.
The chemo she underwent almost killed her and she had to go back to emergency twice and then be admitted for
further observation and treatment . She had become very anemic due to blood loss and it took transfusions and medication to get her stabilized.
She is and has always been a fighter. As such she cannot see giving up a part of her body to this disease. After much research she has found an alternative that shows some hope.
Rigvir Virotherapy is the treatment option she is looking into and as she was too ill from the chemo and had to wait till her blood levels were stable enough to continue, her window of opportunity to beat this is narrowing and this therapy is not available in the United States.
She has not been able to work for six months now and medical bills are mounting and insurance will not cover this therapy.
We have been truly blessed with supportive friends and family to help us with meals and rides to school for our son but now are reaching out for help.
Her oncologist and the two surgeons we have consulted say this an aggressive cancer that needs to be treated now!
Organizer and beneficiary
Claude Ricord
Organizer
Long Beach, CA
Karen Remijan
Beneficiary
