Stephanie Smith Stephanie Smith

Welcome to Steph's 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.

As many of you know, Steph was sidelined for Super Bowl Sunday with what she thought was pneumonia. She shared with friends that she hadn't felt 100% since before Christmas. Her annual physical on Jan 30th revealed pneumonia or an infection and they put her on antibiotics with a chest x-ray and ECG. It turns out it was more than pneumonia. Her chest CT scan from Feb 3rd revealed she had a large mass in her right lung, all three lobes and spots on her spine, which after some additional tests was confirmed to be an aggressive form of lung cancer. This was beyond a shock given Steph's very healthy lifestyle and no history of smoking.

On Monday Feb 17th she had a a bronchial ultrasound procedure where they took lung tissue to discover what type of cancer it is and where it started. On Tuesday late evening, Steph was in a great deal of pain and couldn't breath, so after consulting with her doctors Sheila took her to the emergency department at KU hospital. They determined that the mass had essentially collapsed her right lung, and on Wednesday they began treating her with steroids, antibiotics, diuretics, oxygen, pain pills, and eventually chemotherapy. She was diagnosed with non-small cell adenocarcinoma.  She has since had an MRI, which unfortunately revealed that the cancer has spread to her brain. We are waiting on the results of the PET scan, and additional blood work in order to sub-type her cancer and develop a full plan of attack.

This is not a surgical fix. Steph is on two types of chemotherapy and we are hopeful that the additional blood work will tell us which of the 50 new cancer drugs that have come onto the market might target her specific kind of cancer. So there is hope.

She is fighting this with everything she's got and as you would expect from Steph, staying positive. Sheila has been at her side non-stop and they are grateful for all the love and support from all of you. Steph has been visualizing Pac Man mechanically devouring her cancer cells line by line. Her request is that you put out into the universe good vibes, good energy, and prayers if you are so inclined. She sends her thanks and love to her earth angel power team!