Kristine Videgar

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.



In late August, Kristine woke up one morning and wondered if she had a stroke. The left side of her face was not working and she could not do certain things she used to be able to do: wink both eyes, whistle, smack her lips. We ventured to the ER to figure out what was going on. The ER doctor entered the room and after about 5 minutes of conversation with Kristine, he said something to the effect you did not have a stroke, you have Bell's Palsy. (We had no idea what this was!) It's caused by the Epstein Barr virus. If you had chicken pox, you have this virus in your system and it lays dormant in your body. This is one of the conditions it can cause. The doctor said in 2 week - 2 months it should be gone and there is really nothing more you can do about it. He prescribed her steroids and we went home.



After about 3 months and no improvement, Kristine went to a neurologist. He wished she had come in sooner and sent her for a CAT scan and to see a physical therapist. Sometime shortly after this her lymph nodes suddenly became enlarged and she went to see her general practioner who sent her for a biopsy. About 7-10 days later, we finally got the results which were positive for cancer, but not the type that starts in the lymph nodes. Since that time, doctors have been searching for where the cancer began.



This past week, Kristine went through surgery to try to isolate the source. She had her left tonsil removed, they biopsied her lower tongue and went into the parotid gland from behind her ear to biopsy that gland and the nerve in that area.  We now know that the cancer started here and has caused the Bells Palsy symptoms.


As Kristine's husband of almost 27 years, I have never seen this lady rest besides when she goes to bed. She will fight this with all her strength because that's the only thing she knows how to do. We will use this to update everybody when we have updates. We just ask that you continue to pray for Kristine and our family as we battle this together.


Thanks,

Randy