Karyn Baell
Karyn Baell is many things to many people in her life. Wife, mother, daughter, co worker, teacher, neighbor and friend. While she is still all of those things, she can now add Cancer Fighter to the list.
March of 2019 brought a “routine” hysterectomy that turned out to be anything but routine. A large dying fibroid tumor found in the uterus turned out to be a VERY rare and unfortunately aggressive type of cancerous sarcoma called Leiomyosarcoma. The surgery removed the only tumor at the time that they found. But this cancer is notorious for spreading. And coming back. There were massive complications that resulted in a nine day stay in the hospital completely unrelated to the cancer. She fought her way back and it was a long road to recovery with several more bumps along the way.
This particular cancer never really goes away or goes into remission. The best you can hope for is “no evidence of disease”. If it comes back it’s considered metastasized. It is chemo and radiation resistant. So the best course of treatment for it is always surgery if possible. Which is not always possible.
Karyn took on the mission, like she does everything, head on. Full force. Changed everything. Researched everything. Tried everything to not have it come back. Unfortunately it is back as lots of tumors in her lungs referred to as “mets”.
Fortunately they live not too far from one of the best Sarcoma Specialists around. The Mayo Center.
Mayo has been watching the tumors since December. Can you imagine knowing you have cancer literally growing inside of you and they tell you to do nothing? This has been particularly hard for her and Brad, but they trusted the doctors and they trust in God.
They have been going back and forth to Mayo since March of last year and the time has finally come to radically act. Karyn will have MAJOR surgery on October 15th with a full thoracotomy on the right lung. Those of you who don’t know what that entails. They will do about a 10 inch incision on her side. Separate and break ribs, literally put their hands in her lungs and remove as many of those ugly bastards as they can. It is a massive undertaking with a hospital stay and a LONG and VERY painful recovery process. Then guess what, as soon as she starts to feel better, they’ll do it again on the left lung.
The whole family is steadfast on this being the right move to give the best chance at any sort of long term survival. BUT it’s daunting. They’re overwhelmed. They’re scared. They need your prayers. During this crazy covid time the airline industry has been hit hard and Brad has taken some pretty significant pay cuts on top of all of this. Karyn will now be out of work for an undetermined amount of time but a minimum of 3 months. She can not collect disability due to her having stayed home to raise her children all these years.
There are so many extra expenses in Karyn’s battle. Including, transportation and out of town accommodations. Not to mention the TWO major surgeries and TWO hospital stays.
The Baell’s are so thoughtful and generous and would do ANYTHING for anybody. PLEASE join Team Baell and help Karyn fight this EVIL cancer. If we are able to help Brad and Karyn with some of the financial burdens that come along with this battle, they can focus their fight purely on what’s most important, beating cancer and their precious, precious family. Karyn has got her game face on and is ready to fight. Let’s join them.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Karyn’s story. Please donate if you can. ❤️