Back in late October 2019, I randomly had a fainting and puking episode in our kitchen that was soon followed up with a doctor's visit. No other symptoms or issues outside minor headaches appeared for a period of about four months. On Sunday, February 23, I began having intense headaches followed by high blood pressure. I went to the doctor on Thursday, February 28 thinking maybe I had a sinus infection, so she told me to try some OTC sinus stuff. When it wasn't working on Monday, March 2, I began taking a high dose of antibiotics to knock out whatever infection I might have, as at this time, I began experiencing pain, dizziness, nausea, and fatigue that was literally keeping me in bed all day. No fever, labs or blood pressure was out of the ordinary. Finally, on Thursday, March 5, I crawled my way back to see our regular PA to let her know it wasn't working, so she filled me up with an IV bag and sent me down the road to Fargo. In Fargo on the morning of Friday, March 6, routine lab testing brought forth the diagnosis of choriocarcinoma and four tumors were found: two on my brain, one in my lung and one next to my right ovary. We immediately asked for a referral to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, as this is a very rarely seen but very treatable cancer. We traveled via ambulance from Fargo to Rochester with our arrival to Rochester at around 2:30 am on Saturday, March 7. Brain surgery began within six hours after our arrival. During this operation, a large life-threatening 1.5-inch tumor was removed from my brain stem which was causing the painful and debilitating symptoms of nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. Today on March 10, the wonderful team here at Mayo will attempt a gamma knife radiation treatment on the smaller tumor in my brain and chemo in a few weeks will take on the tumors in my lung and ovary. I'm so hopeful and so very thankful to be on this path right now. I miss all of my little people so much and send THANKS to all of our friends, family, and community for the tremendous love and support. Also thank you to my rock husband who has been carrying our whole family this entire way. We will rise, no doubt about that here! Donations: We have lived very fortunate lives surrounded by opportunity and wonderful, altruistic, caring people with others much more deserving of donations. We wish for all financial gifts to help support patient needs (financial assistance) at Mayo Clinic. To donate, please visit
https://philanthropy.mayoclinic.org/donateMC 
