Kelli Nicholls

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.