Carrie Murray's Medical Expenses

Hi, My name is Nickie Bright and this is my amazing, brave, witty, 14 year-old granddaughter, Caroline (Carrie) Murray. This is Carrie’s story:

Carrie is an amazing, intelligent teenager with a quick wit and unique fashion sense who started her first year of high school in August. She is an incredibly gifted student who excels in math, working two grades above her level. Carrie was looking forward to participating in theater.

Carrie’s true passion is baking. She makes traditional cookies, loaves of bread, cakes, and more. Carrie spent the last weeks of summer working like crazy - she baked hundreds of cookies to give away as samples. She designed business cards. When school began, she started taking orders. Within a week, she had already made $100 selling cookies… and in one little moment changed everything.

She was walking on a sidewalk at school when she tripped on air and faceplanted directly into the concrete. Two days later her father, Jimmy noticed her legs were swollen and took her to an urgent care clinic. Her blood pressure was so high, the nurse thought the machine was broken. Jimmy was directed to take her to the emergency department immediately.

Carrie endured being poked and prodded in the ED while they ran tests-lots and lots of tests. Sometime after midnight, she was admitted to the PICU where they worked to get her blood pressure down. Her mother, Jennie, and I were there the next morning when the oncologist explained she was 95% sure Carrie had a pheochromocytoma, a hormone secreting tumor, in her left adrenal gland. Dr. Cohn ordered an MRI and told us Carrie would have surgery once her blood pressure was down. Carrie would spend a week or two in the hospital and return home to continue with her life. After the MRI, she had CTs of her chest, brain, and a bone scan.

Carrie has metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma. A cancer so rare there are only 25 pediatric cases each year. Dr. Cohn had never seen a case. There has never been a case at Dell Children’s. She had two tumors. The primary tumor (Larry) in the left adrenal gland on top of her kidney and the secondary tumor (Barry) in her liver. Yes, she named her tumors. According to Carrie, Larry was on the left and his friend, Barry, wandered across to the right side of her body. Soon, all the doctors and nurses were referring to the tumors as Larry and Barry.

Once Carrie’s blood pressure was under control, she was discharged home while the surgical team was assembled (in addition to the pediatric oncology surgeon, two well-known, adult surgeons from Dell Medical School scrubbed in on her case). Larry and Barry’s eviction day was September 15. We thought surgery was a tremendous success. Larry was about 4.5 inches long and had grown into the vessel of her left kidney. There was a 50% chance they would have to remove her kidney, but they were able to save it. Barry was about an inch long but had given birth to multiple small tumors that didn’t show up on any of the scans. The surgeons removed everything they could see and did an ultrasound of her liver to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

Carrie recovered quickly. She never complained and still never complains. As much as she hates needles and has grown to dislike being in the hospital, she never complains. When she cropped her hair short and bought hats to cover her head, she never complained. She started her first round of chemo a couple of weeks later. It was tough. Three days of inpatient chemo followed by outpatient chemo every three weeks for 24 week-8 rounds of chemo.

Carrie went in for her third round of chemo the day after Thanksgiving. Dr. Cohn ordered a routine MRI which showed multiple tumors throughout her liver. Chemo was not working. The only option left is a combination of chemo and an immunomodulator which has cured two (only two) people in the entire world with ACC. After fighting with the insurance company, Carrie had her first infusion of the new meds two days ago.

This is Carrie’s story. We wait and hope and pray. I could write so much more. About how much my heart hurts to see her struggle. About her family, her parents, her brother and two sisters (the youngest is two), grandparents, and even great-grandparents who love her. About the community and friends who have rallied behind her. About the caring, compassionate, doctors and nurses who have cared for her. About the frustration dealing with an insurance company denying simple things like synthetic THC to increase the appetite of a 100 lbs. teenager with cancer.

We’re hoping to raise $25,000 to help with Carrie’s medical expenses.