Fighting Rare Brain Cancer
Donation protected
My name is Brandi and I have Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade 3. A rare Brain Cancer. 5 1/2 years ago i was given a diagnose that I had 9 months to live. I left the west coast and moved back to family in Minnesota. I have 3 children and I am a single parent. April 21st, 2009 was when the Brain surgury was done. I had to go to rehab and learn to walk and talk and do everything all over again. Trust me it was a struggle, but I have made it with the strength of my family and friends and alot of prayer chains. I have had many kidney troubles because of all the chemo and seizure meds over the years. I have also had alot of skin cancer scares over the last 4 years. Seizures were controlled for a long time with trying every medication possible. I am a fighter at heart.
Here I am 35 years old, 3 children, 15, 13, 12 and went to my MRI in October and the Brain Cancer has flared up again and is inoperable. Radiation is not a possibility because the tumor has shifted deeper and would leave me no quality of life if they tried. I have been given the diagnoses of less than a year....... Doctor called me personally a week before Christmas......She told me to celebrate my last one with the children. Needless to say we did not have a Christmas. My Mom and I were checking everywhere to make sure we had exhausted all efforts to stop this cancer. My seizures are no longer under control and I am very weak and have lost alot of weight. I am never hungry and my seizures are getting worse and more often. I had a visit with Oncology and they are willing to do Chemo through infusion but the risks are great and I will need alot of strength and care to get through this. My children and I would love to return to California and walk the beach and create some memories for them to hold onto. In all this struggle, I have never been able to make a bucket list and cross things off that i have wanted for my children. Please help me get my kids back to the West Coast to make some great memories and have some photos for my children to hang on to.
Here I am 35 years old, 3 children, 15, 13, 12 and went to my MRI in October and the Brain Cancer has flared up again and is inoperable. Radiation is not a possibility because the tumor has shifted deeper and would leave me no quality of life if they tried. I have been given the diagnoses of less than a year....... Doctor called me personally a week before Christmas......She told me to celebrate my last one with the children. Needless to say we did not have a Christmas. My Mom and I were checking everywhere to make sure we had exhausted all efforts to stop this cancer. My seizures are no longer under control and I am very weak and have lost alot of weight. I am never hungry and my seizures are getting worse and more often. I had a visit with Oncology and they are willing to do Chemo through infusion but the risks are great and I will need alot of strength and care to get through this. My children and I would love to return to California and walk the beach and create some memories for them to hold onto. In all this struggle, I have never been able to make a bucket list and cross things off that i have wanted for my children. Please help me get my kids back to the West Coast to make some great memories and have some photos for my children to hang on to.
Organizer
Brandi Rokke
Organizer
Newfolden, MN