Christopher’s Story

Site created on November 2, 2022

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated on Christopher’s fight with Chondrosarcoma. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. 



A quick backstory of how we got to this point: 



Chris was having some back issues while deployed last summer (2021). When he got home the discomfort continued and he brought it up at his post deployment appointment. X rays showed no major issue, so he started physical therapy in hopes to strengthen and work out the pain. After a few months of physical therapy, lots of daily stretching and working to strengthen the muscles the pain was progressively getting worse, and he was experiencing numbness in his abdomen. At that point an MRI was scheduled and a mass was found on his spine. The VA then sent him over to Sanford for a biopsy and it came back as grade 1 Chondrosarcoma. After meeting with a neurosurgeon, it was decided to move forward with surgery to remove the tumor. 


The end of July Chris had surgery to remove the tumor. By this time the tumor had grown significantly in size from approximately a golf ball to a baseball or orange.  During surgery, the neurosurgeon had to take the T 9 and T 10 nerves, the back part of T9 and T 11 and most of T10 vertebrae. He was able to scrape the tumor from his spinal cord and lungs, but not able to take margins in those areas. He placed 2 rods and 5 screws, fusing the T-9 through T-11. Overall, the neurosurgeon felt confident and successful with how the resection and hardware placement went.
 
Chris spent 6 days in the hospital prior to discharge and he was put on a 12 week lift/bend/twist restriction and in a back brace that some of us lovingly referred to as his “turtle shell”. Once home, he was already out walking the neighborhood within the week and consistently putting the effort in to do anything he could to regain strength and help the recovery process. We were even able to start camping again by late August! He had to coach me through what needed to be done, but we made a good team, and he was very patient with me and I learned a lot! The best part was being able to get out of the house and outside to enjoy making some more summer memories with the kiddos. Mid-September we participated in the Veterans Honor March by completing the “mini-march” that was 16 miles on the Mickelson Trail. Chris felt good and we enjoyed an awesome weekend with friends, highlighted by beautiful weather and the amazing scenery of the Black Hills. 


Meantime, follow up appointments were had with oncology and radiation oncology here at Sanford in Sioux Falls. Both were in agreement that a radiation treatment would be the best next course of action. With Chondrosarcoma not being a cancer that they have seen much of, the radiation oncologist made a referral to Mayo Clinic to see if he was a good candidate for proton radiation and to also see the chondrosarcoma specialists there.  This was set for the early November. 


October 12th Chris had his post op appointment with the neurosurgery team to follow up on recovery and evaluate if he was ready to come off restrictions and out of the back brace. He had X rays and an MRI. The review of the MRI showed that he healed nicely, and the hardware was set and maintaining it’s placement and he was told he could go back to normal activities as tolerated and not have to wear the brace any longer. However, the MRI also showed significant regrowth of the cancer. This was not at all what we were expecting. Chris reached out to his radiation oncologist right away to view the MRI results and he was adamant that he go to Mayo soon as possible to meet with their specialist team. 


He was able to get on the schedule at Mayo a little earlier, and that brings us to this week.  Chris had a CT on Sunday and we then met with doctors on Monday. They discussed how Sarcoma (bone cancer) makes up maybe 1% of all types of diagnosed cancer on a yearly basis and Chondrosarcoma (bone cancer that forms in the cartilage of the bone) is even less common, and Chondrosarcoma developing in the spine is even more rare yet. There is very little treatment data for reference available, but they were both reassuring that he was in the right place, and they are going to do whatever they can to help find the best treatment.


They went over the MRI from October with us and it shows the tumor is already much larger than what had previously been removed.  Both the radiation oncologist and surgeon agreed that surgery followed by proton radiation is the best chance Chris has at local control because the tumor is too large for radiation alone to manage. This second resection and revision surgery brings higher risk than the first with the complexity and extent of regrowth. The original hardware will be removed and replaced with longer rods and more screws. They want Chris to start a proton radiation treatment plan as soon as he is healed from the surgery to try and get ahead of any possible regrowth. They went over what to expect with surgery and what the proton radiation treatment looks like. It was a lot of information to take in. Quite overwhelming, mentally, and emotionally. The road ahead is daunting. So, for now we focus on step one: surgery. The hope is to get this accomplished sooner than later, but there are a few puzzle pieces that need to fall into place first. 


This is where the CaringBridge comes into play. A centralized spot to give updates easily to our family and friends, and to ask for prayers. I ask that you lift Chris in prayer and pray for calm hearts and clear minds as we navigate a path forward. Pray for timing, that surgery can be scheduled and done soon. Pray for the doctors as they make a surgical plan. Pray for our kids. This is so much to put on a child’s shoulders, that we are cautious what to tell them so that they don’t carry the burden of worry or fear.  Pray for us to know how and how much to tell them. 


Thank you for following along with us and praying for Chris. 

Newest Update

April 4, 2024

Journal entry by Laura Thesenvitz —

Yesterday was the start of immunotherapy for Christopher.

The first appointment was scheduled super early morning, so we opted to each leave work a tad early  and drove up the evening before. We drove in mostly daylight the whole way so that was nice. There were some rain showers that peppered our travels and we even saw a full rainbow with a momentary glimpse of a double rainbow! By the time we got a few miles out from the exit to Rochester it started to get a little weird as the sun set so thankfully we didn't have far to go and we were done driving for the night. We checked in and had a nice late bite to eat before calling it a night. 

Wednesday morning kicked off early with Chris having a blood draw followed by a small window of time for us to enjoy one of our favorites we can't get in Sioux Falls - Dunkin! Coffee on board, we headed back to meet with Christopher's Medical Oncologist, Dr. Ho and have an "educational visit" with her nurse about the immunotherapy and specifically the drug that he will be receiving.

Dr. Ho met with us and discussed with Christopher how he has been doing since his last procedures and if he has noticed any relief since the vertebroplasty and was happy with the progress he is making. She then went into discussing what the plan looks like for immunotherapy - one infusion every 3 weeks for at least 4 cycles. Depending on how he tolerates the infusions and if there are any side effects she may consider doubling the dose and spanning out to every 6 weeks. Within these cycles, the timing is also being worked to line up with periodic imaging to monitor any tumor progression or changes. She was very pleased to show us in his baseline scans from a few weeks ago that this is a very positive place to start from. This isn't being used as a last ditch effort to fight an existing monster, it is being used as an additional tool in the toolbox to minimize the risk or pace of recurrence.  She feels confident that this is a good next step for Chris to be taking.  

Dr. Ho's nurse went over what to expect with each infusion and then went over the multi-page list of possible side effects. This was a little daunting, but she reminded us that a lot of what she had to cover is rare and that the side effects list of most common over the counter medications that we take are just as scary, and we don't even think twice about them. Full of a ton of information and several pages of more reading, we headed out to kill a few hours before Christopher's infusion. 

Mid afternoon Chris was scheduled for his first infusion and it went smoothly. We didn't know what to expect or what exactly  was protocol- since with radiation I wasn't allowed back with him, so he went back on his own. Turns out, I could have gone with him... the things we learn along the way! Anyway, he said it took just a bit longer the first time to get situated and they mix the drug there directly prior to infusion. The infusion only takes about 30 minutes minutes and some fluids following to flush and he was done! 

We grabbed a late lunch and hit the road. We were thankful for the sunny drive even though it was windy windy windy, and we were happy to be home last night.  

Overall it was a very smooth and positive quick trip out and back. We pray that the immunotherapy is successful without detrimental side effects. Hopefully we will only have another positive update in a few weeks after another smooth infusion ( I promise it will be less long winded next time).

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers as Christopher continues this path! 

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