OT: My wife Kari: Good news and bad

[neptunonc at yahoo.com (Neptuno)]

All of my well wishes and prayers are going your way as I type. I can not stress the importance of good thoughts. Keep strong!
   
  El Tony


"Camron D. Crouse" <camron@worldaccessnet.com> wrote:
  Scirocco content: Slim to none... have neglected my Scirocco for obvious reasons. Thanks for 
reading anyway, I've been quite scarce around here lately...

(Original posting to too many recipients; reposted here for .org list)

As few of you know, my wife Kari Norick was diagnosed with a tiny non-malignant tumor in her
midbrain just over a year ago. On April 1, 2005, she had a shunt placed in her head to drain spinal
fluid which had been collecting in her ventricles due to blockage. She spent most of the year
healthy and happy, and we were married on July 2. This shunt functioned for several months, but
required a "revision" late in the summer due to clogging. The shunt clogged again late in the year,
was replaced, clogged again, replaced, etc. She had a total of 9 shunt-related surgeries between
April and the following January, mostly in December.

Finally she was out of the hospital in mid-January after a 3-week stay, gaining her strength back
through physical therapy. A couple weeks later, however, her strength plateaued and started to
decline. A New MRI scan showed that the tumor was becoming malignant; it is likely a grade 3 or
grade 4 glioma. (Because of its location in the midbrain, a biopsy was deemed impossible, let alone
surgery to remove the growth.) Kari was put on medication to help cope with brain swelling, and her
strength improved just enough for us to complete a 6-week course of radiation therapy on "Good
Friday", April 14, 2006, as well as chemotherapy with a new type of cancer-fighting drug with low
side effects.

That should bring everyone up to date. So this is where we are right now:
A recent MRI proved that the radiation and chemo were effective at killing the malignancy - this is
very good news. However, this does not mean that the tumor has just disappeared, but rather the
cancer-detecting dyes used in the MRI scan no longer light up. In other words, there is still a
mass in her midbrain, which may (will) become cancerous again sometime in the future.

Right now Kari is profoundly weakened; She was admitted to Southwest Washington Medical Center in
Vancouver (where she works as a pharmacist, and where her mother Sharon also works as a nurse) on
Wednesday April 19 after a follow-up with her Medical Oncologist. What was supposed to be an
overnight observation has so far turned into a week-long stay and counting. She can no longer stand
or walk, she can barely speak or sit upright on her own, she cannot swallow food or liquid of any
kind (a feeding tube was placed just before noon today), she is confused, suffers from headaches,
and is very jittery and sleepless due to steroid medication used in hopes of reducing swelling
around the tumor in the very sensitive midbrain. She can, however, usually answer yes-or-no
questions accurately with a nod or shake.

There are a few scenarios we are facing at this point.

1. The high-dose IV steroid medication could finally kick in within a week or so and help to
stabilize the swelling from radiation, so that she can do physical therapy and get strong enough to
go home. She had been on the medication, called Decadron, on relatively low doses since January,
and she may be becoming tolerant of it even now that she's on very high doses.

2. The steroid dosage that she is now on could be too high (my opinion, not necessarily the
Doctors'), and that is the source of most of her symptoms right now - jitteryness, inability to
swallow, etc. - due to side-effects (though weak, Kari could eat with little problem, and walk
around the house with assistance, even the day she was admitted to SWMC).

3. Her weakened condition could improve if the radiation and chemo are able to make the tumor shrink
down somewhat, relieving pressure on her vital midbrain. No one has given us an exact timeline on
how long this would take, but it would be a couple months before shrinkage would be complete.

4. This is very difficult for me to write this, but we may very well be near the end. It is very
hard for me to accept this scenario, but the high doses of medication to combat weakness from brain
swelling should have helped by now, and they clearly have not (yet).... she has only gotten worse.
The tumor may not shrink, and may even be continuing to grow, despite all of our hard work. It is
extremely painful to think of going on without this wonderful, vibrant, beautiful girl, as it is to
see her suffering so much right now.


I might not have another chance to ask for thoughts and prayers of healing from everyone, so I am
doing it now. This is my call out. To those that know and love Kari as much as her family and I,
as well as to those that I dearly hope get to meet her in the future when things get better, lets
all put our hearts together for her. We love our Kari!


Sincerely,
Camron Crouse (husband), Sharon and Randy Norick (parents), Stephanie and Amanda (sisters)
Edie and Bill Crouse (mother- and father-in-law)



Thank you so much, Everyone!


















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