The Good News and Bad News about my tumor

Now more than ever, I need my family and friends to avoid Dr. Google. Remember, I am only taking medical advice from my oncology team, okay?

I'll start at the bad news: The Mayo Clinic found that I do NOT have the gene mutations that make this type of cancer easier to fight. The first one is the IDH1 mutation, which means that the tumor started as something else, and then became glioblastoma. In my case, it's been the g-word all along, so this will be much harder to fight. The other gene is an MGMT silencing mutation. The fact that I do not have that means that I metabolize the chemo too quickly, meaning the chemo is less effective on me than on the people with this mutation. This means that my fight is going to be significantly harder.

The good(ish) news: About 2 weeks ago, they had to do a mid-treatment MRI (which they don't usually do) because I had developed a mild hand tremor in my right hand (unexpected because surgery was on right hemisphere). They wanted to rule out seizure activity and more importantly that the tumor had not crossed from the right hemisphere to the left (unusual but also unusually BAD). So, the MRI ruled out both (good news) but also showed that where the tumor lesion was 12mm at the beginning of treatment, it was now at 6mm, so radiation was objectively making the tumor lesion smaller. Good news, right?

What they let slip (and I did not know beforehand) is that radiation is typically only effective on this type of tumor 20% of the time. Lucky me, I'm part of that 20% where radiation works, since all the genetic news came back not great.

But if I'm being really honest, I'm not really sure I would have gone through the radiation HELL if I had known there was only a 20% chance of it working. Radiation SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS, and 1 in 5 chance of success is not great. Now, it has been successful so far (next scan in two weeks) but I feel weird about all of it, because if I had known some of these numbers, I might have made different choices that would have ended up with me in a worse position.

So, now more than ever, I need your help:

GoFundMe 
If you can't donate, please share this across any social media platforms. More than ever, this needs to go viral. Thank you so much for your help and support!

My CashApp: I hate to even ask, but if you are willing and able to donate any amount at all, it would help me pay for gas, groceries, and other necessities, especially while I am not working. Keep in mind, GoFundMe takes a percentage of the donations in processing fees, while CashApp will give me 100% of whatever is donated.

A good friend of mine has started a FB fundraiser. If you prefer to donate there, any help would make a difference. Maybe we can make it go viral?

If you are in Connecticut, there will be a benefit event very kindly being held on my behalf at Sudor Taino Gym on October 24th. Any donations there will also be very helpful!