One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

August 31, 2021 by Stephanie Daigre, Team Member

We are reaching out with this brief post to ask for more prayers and support for Emily and her family.

For the past couple weeks, Emily has been experiencing increased pain in her right side and abdomen along with fatigue and nausea. Last Thursday evening she began feeling much worse and by Friday morning she had developed generalized tremors and weakness. She was also a little confused and struggling with some short term memory issues.

Coincidentally, Emily already had a very important follow up appointment scheduled for that same afternoon with Dr Taylor at UCSF. So, Ben quickly composed and sent email messages to the various members of Emily’s care team, loaded her in the car, and headed to San Francisco.

Dr. Taylor ordered stat labs and then Emily went straight in for her long awaited post treatment brain MRI. Due to Emily’s condition, Dr. Taylor immediately escorted her and Ben into the emergancy department where they were quickly able to initiate treatment and got her admitted.

Her liver and kidneys were in acute distress. She and Ben spent the last four days in the hospital focusing on getting Emily stable while also collaborating with her care team to formulate a new treatment plan.

Emily’s brain scan gave us great news! There has been no tumor growth or disease activity since her craniotomy and tumor resection.

Unfortunately, Emily’s decline is related to the mass in her liver. Her most recent CT indicates that the mass was not responsive to the six week course of chemotherapy. The mass has grown larger and is very active.

Yesterday, Emily was given a new combination of chemotherapy drugs which we are hoping will effectively begin killing and shrinking the mass.

Please PLEASE share Emily’s story as we are hoping we might come across other people who are struggling with similar cases. Emily’s situation is very rare as she has glioblastoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and possibly another form of cancer in the liver. Social networking can be a very powerful tool, so the more we can spread her story around, the better chance we will have of connecting with people who might be able to help.

We will be adding more information and updates about Emily’s condition and treatment plan as things unfold.

Thank you for following along on this journey with our beautiful fearless warrior, Emily!

If you can provide a meal or purchase a handmade fundraiser item please follow the links listed below.

THANK YOU ! !