Laurie Quistorff

On February 7, 2020 we got some news.  Mom had a brain tumor and we were going to the Mayo.  We couldn't believe it.  She never mentioned many symptoms prior to January but she knew something wasn't right.  She had some tingling and redness on the left side of her face.  She also said it felt like her skin was 'crawling.'  Her primary doctor did some test and thought she had temporal arteritis.  When the biopsy came back negative from that surgery, she pushed for an MRI.  This is when we found out the news.  We headed to the Mayo on Feb 18 & 19.  We met with her neuro-oncologist Dr. Daniel Lachance and her surgeon Dr. Kai Miller.  They informed us that they do not treat any type of cancer if they can help it without a diagnosis.  Mom's cancer is located deep on the left side of her brain and partially in her thalamus.  The problem with this is the thalamus controls the sensory and motor skills.   At this moment, she knows her right side of her body is there but it is not functioning like it should.   The doctors decided that they would do a brain biopsy to make sure what type of cancer they were dealing with.  They knew it was one of two types,  either a glioblastoma or a lymphoma.  Of the two cancers, we were praying for the lymphoma.   On Feb 21, Dr Miller did the brain biopsy.  We received the biopsy results on February 25, 2020.  It was lymphoma!  Yes it was weird to celebrate for lymphoma but we did and we got the okay from all the doctors to go to Hawaii and that is what we did!  Well today  (March 16, 2020) starts a new chapter.  Prayer warriors needed!