Welcome to Kristy's CaringBridge website. This site is intended to keep family and friends updated in one place. Your support and words of hope and encouragement are very much appreciated.
In early August 2018, Kristy began battling bouts of dizziness and nausea. As the symptoms worsened, Kristy decided it was time to see a doctor. After several doctor visits and trials/experiments to determine the cause, the initial determination was Kristy was dealing with vertigo - a relatively common condition that causes dizziness and loss of balance. She saw chiropractors and some physical therapy. The doctors adjusted her thyroid medication levels as well, but none of that was the cure. Thankfully Kristy's doctor also ordered an MRI - just in case.
The MRI was scheduled for Sept 26th - just 3 days after her husband, Mike, left for a yearlong deployment with the Army to the Middle East. Kristy received the results of the MRI on Sept 27th, 2018 and it was determined that she has a "mass on her brain" located at the left cerebellum, extending into and nearly filling the 4th ventricle near the brainstem. It was serious enough that the doctors urgently recommended surgery to remove the tumor. Kristy had brain surgery on Monday, October 8th. Mike was able to take emergency leave and fly home to be with her. The removal of the tumor was a success, and thankfully the tumor was benign, but recovery was difficult. Kristy developed an infection that required hospitalization and another surgery at the end of October, but fortunately after a few more weeks in the hospital, Kristy recovered enough to return home.
Kristy's full recovery took a few months, but amazingly she was back to work in January 2019. She has had several MRIs over the past 4 years to check the area of her brain for any regrowth. Regrowth of this type of tumor is very rare, so after two years of clean scans, the doctors felt as though Kristy could extend the time between scans from one year to two years.
In October 2022, Kristy went back to have another routine scan. We all expected a clean scan; doctors included. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
It's hard to believe 3 months have passed since our last update, but better late than never.
Last night Kristy swallowed her LAST chemo pills and completed the harrowing journey that she started 15 months ago. As of this message, her treatment is DONE and she is CANCER FREE! 🙏
Her last MRI was back in February and there were no signs of anything abnormal. She'll continue to have scans every 2 months for the foreseeable future, but for now at least, she can breathe a little easier. Her focus now is on healing her body (which has been through a lot) and building back her strength and stamina.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers over the past year. It truly means a lot!
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