Heather’s fight against Glioblastoma Brain Cancer
Donation protected
Heather has been diagnosed with Brain Cancer Glioblastoma Grade 4, one of the deadliest cancers that has no cure as of now.
GBM is the most aggressive type of brain cancer and currently there is no cure. The average length of survival from a GBM diagnosis is 12 to 18 months, with less than 3–7% of people surviving longer than five years.
The standard of care for this disease is radiation and chemo for 6 weeks, however getting into a clinical trial is a HUGE benefit; an icing on the cake. Heather got into the clinical trial at Mayo Clinic Rochester and praying it works for her! It started 1/5/2022.
Heather will be going to Mayo Clinic for the 6 weeks and renting a house. The girls will have their lives uprooted as they will change to virtual school and going with Heather.
GBM is the most aggressive type of brain cancer and currently there is no cure. The average length of survival from a GBM diagnosis is 12 to 18 months, with less than 3–7% of people surviving longer than five years.
The standard of care for this disease is radiation and chemo for 6 weeks, however getting into a clinical trial is a HUGE benefit; an icing on the cake. Heather got into the clinical trial at Mayo Clinic Rochester and praying it works for her! It started 1/5/2022.
Heather will be going to Mayo Clinic for the 6 weeks and renting a house. The girls will have their lives uprooted as they will change to virtual school and going with Heather.
No donation is too small. The money will be used for the rental of the house, gas, meals, medical bills etc. This will help reduce the stress to Heather and her husband Eric, during this difficult time.
Thank you SO much to everyone who has donated meals, snacks, time and money on the meal train site so far!! ❤️❤️ It has been greatly appreciated! Since Heather is going to be in Rochester for treatment, We believe this site will be better for donations so we will have updates on here for now. ❤️
Here is her story:
I’ve always been a tired person, but we are thinking around April of 2021 is when I was always tired and just wanted to lay down all the time. I got in contact with dr and discussed if I should increase my anxiety meds or change meds altogether. We increased my meds and then I started having auditory hallucinations. I would have super loud music playing in my right ear, so loud I couldn’t hear others talking to me and had to tell them to wait until it went away.
That happened for about 3 weeks until I had it again and next thing I know, on 12/1/2021, I woke up on the kitchen floor with paramedics over me. My amazing house cleaner found me seizing in my kitchen and called 911. My 5 pound poodle was laying on me when paramedics came in ❤️
I went to north memorial maple grove and had a CT.
BOOM! My life changed. I had something showing on the CT in my brain and they transferred me over to north memorial Robbinsdale.
They wanted to do additional work up and told me to come back for the tests I believe on Monday and will have surgery Tuesday. The surgery could wait because it wasn’t affecting anything, however I was put on seizure meds and steroids immediately.
I went home. The next night I called 911 but couldn’t communicate. Eric took the phone and handled it all. My parents came too ❤️The paramedics came and all I remember is I felt comatose and couldn’t communicate outward or inward.
Got to NM hospital, the mass had swelled and was right next to my speech center so that’s why I was acting that way.
Had surgery on 12/7. I will say I looked pretty damn cool with my staples, like a hot chick from the 80’s. Graphic cool photo can be sent if anyone wants to see
Was told it could be something I could have been born with (can’t remember what) or could be benign tumor (that’s what they thought it looked like) or malignant.
The tumor came out fully resected, BUT testing came back as GLIOBLASTOMA GRADE 4 diagnosis. Glioblastoma will never fully be removed…it will always be there.
“Glioblastomas are diffuse and have finger-like tentacles that infiltrate the brain, which makes them very difficult to remove completely. This is particularly true when the tumors are growing near important regions of the brain that control functions such as language and movement/coordination.”
On top of that, the two bio markers came back unfavorable towards treatment working in my favor.
“Glioblastoma is a type of brain cancer. It's the most common type of malignant brain tumor among adults. And it is usually very aggressive, which means it can grow fast and spread quickly. Although there is no cure, there are treatments to help. “
On paper, my results look terrible so I want to do whatever it takes to be here for my girls ❤️
I will fight this and beat it!!
Here is her story:
I’ve always been a tired person, but we are thinking around April of 2021 is when I was always tired and just wanted to lay down all the time. I got in contact with dr and discussed if I should increase my anxiety meds or change meds altogether. We increased my meds and then I started having auditory hallucinations. I would have super loud music playing in my right ear, so loud I couldn’t hear others talking to me and had to tell them to wait until it went away.
That happened for about 3 weeks until I had it again and next thing I know, on 12/1/2021, I woke up on the kitchen floor with paramedics over me. My amazing house cleaner found me seizing in my kitchen and called 911. My 5 pound poodle was laying on me when paramedics came in ❤️
I went to north memorial maple grove and had a CT.
BOOM! My life changed. I had something showing on the CT in my brain and they transferred me over to north memorial Robbinsdale.
They wanted to do additional work up and told me to come back for the tests I believe on Monday and will have surgery Tuesday. The surgery could wait because it wasn’t affecting anything, however I was put on seizure meds and steroids immediately.
I went home. The next night I called 911 but couldn’t communicate. Eric took the phone and handled it all. My parents came too ❤️The paramedics came and all I remember is I felt comatose and couldn’t communicate outward or inward.
Got to NM hospital, the mass had swelled and was right next to my speech center so that’s why I was acting that way.
Had surgery on 12/7. I will say I looked pretty damn cool with my staples, like a hot chick from the 80’s. Graphic cool photo can be sent if anyone wants to see
Was told it could be something I could have been born with (can’t remember what) or could be benign tumor (that’s what they thought it looked like) or malignant.
The tumor came out fully resected, BUT testing came back as GLIOBLASTOMA GRADE 4 diagnosis. Glioblastoma will never fully be removed…it will always be there.
“Glioblastomas are diffuse and have finger-like tentacles that infiltrate the brain, which makes them very difficult to remove completely. This is particularly true when the tumors are growing near important regions of the brain that control functions such as language and movement/coordination.”
On top of that, the two bio markers came back unfavorable towards treatment working in my favor.
“Glioblastoma is a type of brain cancer. It's the most common type of malignant brain tumor among adults. And it is usually very aggressive, which means it can grow fast and spread quickly. Although there is no cure, there are treatments to help. “
On paper, my results look terrible so I want to do whatever it takes to be here for my girls ❤️
I will fight this and beat it!!
Co-organizers (2)
Jill Neumann
Organizer
Monticello, MN
Heather Reich Malmberg
Beneficiary
Matt Reich
Co-organizer