Support for Shawn Filipiak

Hi, my name is Maddie and I am fundraising for my brother Shawn Filipiak.

On Monday, April 10th, Shawn was playing basketball with some of his students and ended up getting a knee to his groin area. Like anyone, this will cause some discomfort for a period of time.

On Tuesday, Shawn woke up and still had the pain and discomfort from the incident. He noticed his one testicle did not look right. He ended up going to urgent care and being sent to Duluth for an ultrasound. They sent him home stating all he had was a hematoma. He later got a call back saying he needed to go in for some blood work.

After getting his blood drawn he proceeded to head north to International Falls that evening for his grandmothers funeral the following day.

On Wednesday, April 12th, Shawn got the call on the way to his grandmothers funeral. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

After the funeral ended, Shawn and his girlfriend, Holly headed back to Duluth for an appointment to get a CT scan. The CT scan was to confirm whether or not the cancer had spread from his testicles to any other part of his body. Later that night he had an MRI to confirm whether or not the cancer had spread to his brain.

On Thursday, April 13th, Shawn got the news that the cancer had spread. His testicular cancer is one of the most aggressive kinds. He was informed that he has a small football shaped tumor in his back and the cancer has also spread into his lymph nodes. Shawn had been having back pain for a few months and had been visiting a chiropractor for the pain. Which we now know was the tumor growing and causing the discomfort.

On Friday, April 14th, Shawn had a biopsy of his lymph nodes to determine the correct path of treatment. Results are expected to be in by Monday or Tuesday.

On Tuesday, April 18th, Shawn got an update from his previous biopsy. He is scheduled to have his testicle removed on Friday, April 21st. The recovery time is about two weeks. After his surgery, the plan is to begin chemotherapy.

On Wednesday, April 19th, Shawn had a meeting with his oncologist and a pre op for his surgery on Friday. Shawn has stage 3b testicular cancer. The oncologist went over the four phase plan that Shawn will begin on Monday, May 1st.

On Thursday, April 27th, Shawn will have his port put in that will administer his chemo treatments.

Shawn will begin his first phase of chemotherapy on Monday, May 1st. The chemotherapy will be for 5 days in a row, then every Monday until the end of the 21 days. Then he will repeat this phase three more times.

Please keep Shawn and his family in your prayers while he forgoes this next chapter.

I will continue to add updates as any information comes in.