My dear friends,
Damien and I had a very nice drive home from Texas. We drove about 11 hours from MD Anderson to Las Cruces. We spent the night in a hotel there. In the morning, Damien found a Carmelite convent 1 mile from our hotel! We stopped there to pray before finishing our drive. It was a beautiful little chapel that was so peaceful. We heard the sisters singing when we first entered. After praying, we saw a gift shop. We were let into the small gift shop by a sweet nun. She went behind a large gate and we attempted to communicate. She only spoke Spanish. We ended up using Google translate. It was so amazing. We told her a little of our story. She gave me a statue of St. Rafael which was so generous. She gave each of us a blessing and had us write our names down so they can pray for us in their masses and Rosaries. It was a beautiful experience and Im so thankful for all the miracles God has done during my journey.
Over the past week, I have had appointments and conversations with many doctors.
An overall recap and conclusion from all these is that MD Anderson completed their pathology and had 2 tumor board meetings on my case. We received a call this morning stating that the pathology was not 100% but with the tumor board meetings and pathology they think it is more likely an ependymoma primary brain tumor. The radiation treatment I had in December is not the correct radiation I should have gotten. So, this is probably why it regrew and there is inflammation in the area. They recommend another surgery soon. They will do more pathology on the tumor and see if they can get a more concrete diagnosis. If it is ependymoma the a 6wk proton radiation treatment is recommended. It is only available in 2 places in California. It was recommended that I go to UCSD. This will be very difficult logistics to figure out but it is closer than Texas!
Yesterday Damien and I met with Dr. Badie a neurosurgeon at City of Hope in Duarte. This quick appointment was made by another miracle! A friend of a friend (Jacque) who is going through her own long pancreatic cancer journey was talking with me. Please keep her in your prayers. Please pray she is restored to full health and all cancer is gone. I told her some of my story and how I wanted to meet with a neurosurgeon at City of Hope but was having trouble doing that. Within 5 minutes, she connected me with the CEO of City of Hope. The CEO was amazing and 5 minutes later I had an appointment booked with Dr. Badie. God is so incredible to me and I am so unworthy of such miracles.
We both really liked him. He will present my case at his tumor board tomorrow morning and in the afternoon he will talk to me about what they discussed and schedule my surgery. I am hoping for next week to give myself more time to recover before my family goes on a planned cruise in mid May. I really want to go on this cruise with my whole family and especially my kids. It will be less than 3 months after surgery but it is something I can look forward to and hope for.
Once pathology results are completed again and I recover about a month, then we will see what is recommended or if our plan needs to change.
I have 1 more Brain MRI on Monday to see what my brain has been up to this past month before we proceed with surgery.
Im thanking God for a clear path forward, for all the great doctors, friends, and new friends I have met along the way, that have been so helpful and caring. It has been a crazy couple weeks, but we have had incredible support from all of you! Your prayers, sacrifices, meals, texts, donations, calls, encouragement, are so powerful. We are truly blessed with a community that has been there for us beyond my wildest dreams. God has given me His peace and comfort through all of you.
I know these next few months will challenging, but God will use it for His glory and I am offering Him everything and praying His Will continue to be done in all our lives. O’ Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.
Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen, pray for us. I am asking for a complete healing from all cancer through his intercession.
I will post another update when I have a surgery date. Thank you for everything friends.
God Bless you all,
Ashley
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