Welcome to our CaringBridge page. We are using it to keep all updates about Jackie in one place. We truly appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
The picture of Jackie above was taken at our local Irish pub (McGonigal’s) on March 17, 2023. We celebrated St Patrick’s Day and finalized preparation for a family spring break trip to Cabo. Well, things have drastically changed since then.
In December, Jackie was diagnosed with brain cancer. On January 25, 2024, she began proton radiation and chemo treatments.
Our first indications were on September 30, 2023, at Logan’s (12) football game. Jackie had an incident where witnesses, paramedics, and doctors believed she was having a stroke. She was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital and spent four nights getting every test, scan, and MRI you can think of. Doctors sent her home with a number of medications and gave us a referral to a Multiple Sclerosis doctor, whose next appointment was three weeks later, in late October.
During that time we got updated MRIs for the doctor to review. At the appointment, he was not convinced that the diagnosis was MS. He wanted to take some more time for medication effects to wear off and view additional MRIs. So, we scheduled a new appointment for after Thanksgiving and got new MRIs of her brain.
Jackie continued to have horrible head and neck pain, and, in addition, the doctor warned us that she could experience additional incidents like she did at Logan’s football game. In November, Jackie and Logan were having lunch at a restaurant, and she had another incident where she had symptoms of a stroke. Though Logan is only 12, he handled it like he was 30! He immediately involved the restaurant manager, called me, took Jackie’s car keys from her, and would not let her drive. I was able to pick them up.
We finally met with the MS doctor again on the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 27, 2023. He looked at the MRI of her brain, explained what he thought he was seeing, and with a frightened expression and concerned tone, said, “This is not MS. This is beyond me, and no offense to anyone out here, but you need to see someone in the city, and you need to see them ASAP. ASAP meaning within the next week.” He gave us a referral of another MS doctor at the University of Chicago.
Because he had just told us it was not MS, we wondered why we were sent to another MS doctor, but those were his connections. Our appointment was scheduled for the following Monday, December 4. However, Jackie’s headaches and neck pain were so severe, and the fear of prolonging a proper diagnosis by starting over with another MS doctor, we went to the Northwestern ER in the city on December 3 so the Northwestern Neurology department could see us. After the ER wait, we gave them the CDs (yes, CDs) of her brain MRIs. They looked at them and admitted her immediately.
Jackie spent 12 nights at Northwestern. On December 12, after more MRIs, spinal taps, and dozens of other tests, doctors biopsied her brain. She was allowed to finally come home on December 15 while we awaited the biopsy results. On December 21, we learned Jackie has brain cancer and that the cancer cells had made it into her cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and could be seen in her spine. Other than some immediate family, we kept this to ourselves in hopes of trying to enjoy the holidays with the kids and allow them to enjoy their break from school.
The treatment for Jackie is proton radiation and chemotherapy. The chemo is daily, by pill, at home, for six weeks. The proton radiation is Monday-Friday for six weeks in Warrenville, IL, which is about a 45-minute drive each way. All those days, six weeks straight, will be long, but it's faster than going to the city – and free parking! There are only 44 proton radiation therapy locations in the US, and this is the only location in Illinois.
One of the side effects of treatment, and the brain cancer itself, is that Jackie will eventually have a great deal of pressure in her head as fluid is looking for somewhere to go. This can be relieved by draining fluid from her brain with the use of a Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) Shunt. So, on January 18, she had surgery to have the shunt placed. It is 100% inside her body, and it relieves pressure by draining excess fluid from her brain into her stomach.
With the shunt in place, we were finally ready to get started with treatments, once a spot opened up at the radiation center, which was January 25.
We are so grateful for the friends and family who have offered help, especially with Brody, Lilly, and Logan, and we are grateful for the love and prayers every day.
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