Kim Bleyenburg

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.   For  three weeks I have been suffering from severe neck pain.  Over the course of the past three weeks, I have been going between my primary doctor, physical therapy and chiropractic care.  Sad to say it just kept getting worse and I was finding no relief.  This left me unable to do normal daily activities, including teaching.  On Friday, September 14th I had a doctor appointment with my primary doctor.  They decided that would do some x-rays of my spine.  This x-ray lead them to discover that I have a large mass on my vertebra.  This mass has caused me to have a pathological fracture of my C2 vertebra.  I was sent to the ER  for a CT scan which showed that I have metastatic lesions.  The doctors are all amazed that I am still able to walk, use my arms and breath on my own (God is good).    Metastatic cancer means that the tumor in my neck is not the primary source of my cancer.  We are still waiting for the results from my CT scan this morning which will tell us where the primary source of cancer is located.  The fabulous news is that I do not have any tumors on my brain.  I am currently wearing a neck brace that has helped releave some of the pain I have been experiencing in  my neck.  The doctors are wanting me to wear a neck brace to keep my spine stable as a minor trauma would lead to catastropic cord injury .