Stacy’s Story

Site created on July 9, 2023

Long story short(ish).................... on Wednesday, May 31, Stacy went to the ER with symptoms of partial numbness in the face, near blackouts, confusion, strange sensations etc. They did a CT scan which revealed a mass in her brain. She was transferred to Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis for an MRI and additional diagnosis/treatment. The imaging showed a primary low grade glioma about the size of a golf ball in the parietal lobe of her brain. This means they believe the tumor started in the brain and didn't metastasize from another part of the body. They also believed it to be non cancerous or life threatening at this time. That is the good news (if there is anything good about having a tumor in the brain). The bad news is the tumor is causing irritation in the brain creating focal seizures, headaches, nausea etc. So now, what do we do about it?

The doctors wanted to monitor the tumor with future imaging and treat the seizures with medication. We were given referrals for follow up appointments with neurology and neurosurgery somewhere closer to home and were sent on our way. With the trying days and weeks that followed, we eventually found our way to Mayo in Rochester where the team of surgeons and other brilliant people decided to remove the tumor. The reasons being that Stacy is young and we want to keep her around for a long time ( I agreed )! Until a tissue sample of the tumor is tested, there is no way of telling what exactly the tumor is and how it will behave. Taking a biopsy of tissue could be done prior to removal of the tumor however, that would be a separate surgery with the results most likely ending with surgery to remove the tumor anyway. So................ we are skipping that step and Stacy will be having a Craniotomy to remove as much of the tumor as safely possible (the surgeon is confident that this can be done) and tissue samples will be tested to find out how to best treat what is left of the tumor. 


Any surgery does not come without risks and needless to say, having a tumor removed from the brain is certainly no different. Stacy's tumor is located in the left parietal lobe of her brain fairly deep and close to the midline. It is  close to areas that control her vision in her right eye and executive functioning, memory, learning etc. The surgeon explained that there is redundancy in the brain and it can compensate to re-learn things if necessary (or something of that nature........ I think). Treatment post surgery will depend on what the tissue samples dictate. It could be radiation and chemotherapy or possibly other new drugs that have been very promising during trials. The first step is surgery and we will continue this journey with all of the strength, love, and prayers from all of you!

Newest Update

Snowy Spring Update 😁

Journal entry by Stacy Hall —

Hello! 
I know... It's been too long since my last update. I kept waiting for winter to come so I could hibernate- and now it seems to be here, several months late! So here I am, a little snow on the ground and it's time to catch up with you all! I actually don't have any incredible stories and I haven't really been doing a whole lot. I guess you could call it "resting" but it's been a lot of trips to Rochester, Dr. appointments, pokes, MRIs, meds, game shows and enjoying time with family.

Chemo isn't as bad as I thought it would be but its not my favorite (nausea & fatigue). Its just a roller coaster and don't know what each day will bring. The winter went by really fast when I look back now, but there were also a lot of really low lows that I need to acknowledge- I hit a wall of depression that was really unexpected and kind of out of nowhere. The doctors suspect that it was partly my seizure med (which has a reputation for doing that) and so they switched around some meds, and introduced me to palliative care. I cannot speak highly enough of Mayo Palliative care- we’ve been doing EMDR Therapy, Aricular & Reiki, I have really felt a lot of relief from these practices and am thankful for their thoughtful care.

I will start round 3 of 6 next week. Its taking me a little longer to rebound after the meds, getting my platelets and white blood cell count back up with each round, which isn’t uncommon. This round they will lower my dose which is also normal. The great news is my MRI after round 2 last month was "stable" which means they don't see any growth (which is the best you can hope for)! So we can celebrate that! It’s looking like it could take through the end of the year to finish chemo as it’s going so slowly. My oncologist reiterated that while my tumor isn’t “curable”, they believe they can keep it stable for a long long time- maybe forever?! Positive thoughts!

It’s been truly a gift to have my mom come stay with us for a good part of the winter. She’s helped with just about everything, but mostly kept me moving during the hardest times. And thank you to my Dad who comes and hangs out and plays games with the kids and doesn’t mind too much that my mom is over here all the time 😂

Taylor and the kids continue to be amazing and resilient. We are processing what our summer will look like- it’s usually one of our busiest times of year, but we are reassessing our current priorities and deciding how we can simplify life a bit. Things may look different for a while and we are starting to accept that. It’s hard to give up things we’ve worked really hard for though- usually we plant 350 tomato plants, this year Taylor said “let’s just plant a few for us” and I said “ok l, let’s just plant 70 then” 😂. So we are still working out the details! 🍅 

Thank you all so much for continuing to check in from time to time, for prayers and well wishes- we can’t wait to crawl out of our bear den and see you soon! 

Hoping for lots of hugs and catching up with you this summer ☀️

❤️, Stacy, Taylor & The Kids 


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