Shawn Westra

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Shawn’s story begins like this. Back in February he was preparing for a total knee replacement and the Friday before surgery he wasn’t feeling well. We figured he had a sinus infection and I would take him to urgent care to get it checked out and he would be put on antibiotics. Well after I got done working we went over to urgent care and they did a CT scan. The doctor came into the room and said that they had found a mass in his brain. The next step was to transport him down to the hospital and get a MRI. That was February 8th and he was transported to Mercy Health.   After the MRI we were told that yes it was a tumor and he would need a craniotomy.  The craniotomy was set for 12th and he would stay in the hospital all those days.  When the doctor came in for the surgery he told us it was a total resection, but the type Shawn had was GBM.  GBM stands for glioblastoma Multiforme.  This type of cancer has fingers and those fingers could hide within the brain. He came home the day after surgery and was doing great until March when he had a seizure. We were in the process of getting the VA to cover his Chemotherapy pills and had to drop off some paperwork to them. He started saying his vision was not right. He could see to the sides, but not in the middle. I wasted no time and got him back to Mercy health which was a couple of minutes away. I cut in front of a lot of people waiting in the waiting and went right to the girl. I told them he had surgery a month prior and something wasn’t right. They got him back right away and we may have been there 30 minutes when he had a seizure. That again got him a ride in the ambulance down to the hospital and a overnight stay there. He was put on a high dose of anti-seizure meds. Since then he has completed 30 treatments of radiation and chemotherapy. He started his maintenance dose of chemotherapy and also started a cap called the Optune. The first MRI he had done since the seizure only showed some swelling and she put him on steroids for that. The most current MRI showed swelling again and also an area of concern.