Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. I am giving the shortest version of her journey so far as she has fought this terrible cancer to update everyone and I will try to keep this updated as we go. I am her mother, Lisa, and I have been by her side helping her in any way I can. Kayla’s fight started February 8, 2017, she was 26 years old at the time. When diagnosed Riley was 3 yrs old and Scarlett was 10 months old. Kayla was working as a 911 dispatcher at the time. She started having terrible headaches and dizziness and she thought it was stress headaches. This went on for a couple months until she had to go to the emergency room and they did a cat scan. The scan showed a large tumor in her brain and severe swelling to the point she had a mid line shift (her brain was swelling and pushing so much it had pushed into her left side of brain.) She was sent to UK and the next day they performed surgery to remove tumor. She was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called a Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma (PXA). After surgery to remove tumor she was monitored with no other treatment. 6 months after 1st surgery the tumor had came back and bigger. So September 19, 2017 another surgery was performed to remove tumor. This was tested and sent to 3 different hospitals. The second tumor was called a PXA by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. The Mayo Clinic and Vanderbilt hospital test came back as a Glioblastoma, a very aggressive brain cancer. She started radiation soon after surgery and chemo. She finished radiation right before Christmas in 2017 and continued chemo. Every 2 months she had MRIs to watch the cancer. It was growing back. The radiation and chemo wasn’t working. June of 2018 she started a clinical trial at Markey Cancer Center. DSP-7888 and Avastin. The first MRI after starting trial showed improvement and the cancer was shrinking. She continued this trial for over a year with success. August, 2019 she had her 1st seizure and was flown to University of Kentucky hospital. October-November 2019 her blood work came back that the trial drugs was causing kidney failure and she would have to slow the drugs down. The tumor started growing back when chemo was slowed down. December 13, 2019 she had her 3rd brain surgery to remove tumor and January 13, 2020 started chemo once again. Her 2nd seizure occurred at home January 12 and wasn’t as severe as the first. So right now she is on chemo every day 3 weeks a month and off 1 week. Her next MRI is in March. She is having a lot of side effects from chemo and it is a daily struggle for her. Severe Nausea, body aches, severe tiredness and she is always cold and just can’t get warm. Even with all of this she is still doing daily activities as much as possible. Most people would never know her struggle or that anything is even wrong by looking at her. She has been so strong through all of this and fought with everything she has. .This cancer is evil and the prognosis isn’t good at all, (12-15 months) but she has beat the odds so far. We pray for a miracle to find a cure, to find something to hold this monster Glioblastoma back so she can watch her kids grow up and live a long happy life. So many have prayed for her and we appreciate each prayer, each thought, each thing everyone has done since this has started. Thank you so much! Keep praying! God Bless each one of you. It breaks my heart to update this...Kayla passed away March 15,2020. She fought until the very end. Life will never be the same without her💔
