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Kelli (33) is a dedicated wife and mother of four (10, 6, 2, 1). In February she
experienced some abdominal pain and ended up having emergency gallbladder
surgery. In the images that they took before surgery they discovered a tumor on
her pancreas. She had a second surgery to remove the cancerous neuroendocrine
tumor, her spleen, and most of her pancreas. She had a difficult time recovering
from the surgery and we soon realized that she was having seizures. Scans
revealed that she had a brain tumor that was causing the seizures. Initially
doctors thought that it had spread from her pancreas to her brain. But, it turned
out to be a grade II Oligoendroglioma (incurable cancerous brain tumor) that was
completely unrelated to the neuroendocrine tumor. In May she had brain surgery
and doctors were able to remove most of the tumor. After a little bit of recovery
from the brain surgery she then underwent 6 weeks of radiation and chemo
treatments to treat the remainder of the tumor. She is currently on a break from
chemo to try and recover from everything that she has been through this year.
She looks forward to spending time with her family over the holidays before she
resumes chemo treatments next year. The brain tumor will continue to grow and
will have to be treated throughout her life. At some point it will probably morph
into a more aggressive and faster growing type of tumor. The love and support
that we have received from our family, friends, and neighbors has held our family
together throughout this very difficult time. We would be lost without them.