Savannah & Her Family Fight Extremely Rare Cancer

We are Rob and Kristi (friends of Savannah & Heath) and we are asking for help from our family, friends and communities to assist Savannah and Heath through the following journey they have been navigating, very bravely, over the past year and a half:

In November of 2021, Savannah noticed a mass in her side. Through initial doctoring, they discovered a miracle - Savannah was 5 months pregnant with their 3rd child. After more scans, the mass was still in the abdomen and at the time thought to be nothing more than a fibroid. The pregnancy was monitored, and they got a healthy baby boy, Axel on April 20th, 2022.

Post-delivery is when her life forever changed.

A biopsy of the mass, which would only be done after the baby was delivered, came back as a cancerous glomus tumor. A direct referral to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN soon became the next fight. Sanford Health Insurance denied surgery even though Sanford Hospital did not have a qualified surgeon to remove this type of tumor. Because of the insurance denials x 4, the surgery was delayed but was eventually scheduled for November 2022.

Savannah was finally able to go to Mayo to have the surgery done on December 29, 2022 after some more rescheduling. The health insurance company did not cover all the expenses because of the initial denials and on top of that further testing of the mass removed showed the diagnosis to be wrong yet again.

On January 10th, 2023, Savannah was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma (LMS), which is an extremely rare, soft tissue cancer that accounts for less than 1% of all adult cancers. Unfortunately, there is no cure for this rare cancer. However, Savannah continues to fight each and every day. She continues to care for and mother her and Heath's three beautiful children: Hadley (12), Eason (10) and Axel (15 mos.).

What was thought to be 2 to 3 months to recover from surgery changed once again in April 2023. That sweet miracle baby poked Savannah in the eye and a trip to the eye doctor confirmed a torn cornea. Savannah started her first round of Chemo on May 1, 2023, thinking that was her next fight. Another trip to the eye doctor on May 4th for a recheck of her eye sent her straight to an MRI as her eye had healed but her vision had not improved. May 5th it was diagnosed that her cancer had now spread to her brain and a new tumor appears to be located directly behind the eye which has caused her a lot of discomfort, watery, blurry and double vision.

This has not only taken her away from going back to work successfully but limits what she can do. Driving is no longer an option and using the oven is now a danger when seeing double. The side effects of the medication she needs require her husband to stay home, having a young one in the house again. Due to the location of the tumor, it was determined that targeted brain radiation may be an option to shrink the tumor to get some relief. But, there is a chance her vision may not come back or come back with damage.

She has completed 5 rounds of targeted brain radiation and continues chemo. Her husband, Heath has had to step in to fulfill this huge role, taking him out of his insurance career. He now takes on the role of caretaker to Savannah and their 3 kids as well as a childcare provider to their in-home childcare business.

Any funds raised will go directly to Savannah and her family to help with their loss of income and medical bills that continue to come as recent scans have shown more spread.

We all appreciate you taking the time to read this and thank you for your positive thoughts and prayers for Savannah and her family.