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I will try to relate to all of my friends here, the reason I have not been her lately. I promised several people a recipe a couple of weeks ago, but have not been able to make good on that promise.
Many of you may recall when I lost my nephew Eric (the fireman) a couple of years ago to brain cancer.
Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, it has. Now, my sisters daughter Mallory, Eric's sister has been diagnosed with the same brain cancer. This is a GLEOMA, and is the same tumor that took Ted Kennedy's life. Mallory just celebrated her 30th birthday. She is a district manager for Maurice's. She was experiencing some loss of feeling, and numbness on her left cheek and tongue. Her physician ordered an MRI, and a lesion was found. This type of tumor has "fingers", which come out of the lesion and wrap them selves around brain tissue, and cannot be removed without causing significant damage to the brain. Yesterday my sister Lisa accompanied Mallory to the Marshfield Clinic for pre-surgical testing, and also to have her head shaved for brain surgery today. We were all holding out hope that the tumor would not have gotten to the point of having these fingers, but the surgeon told us that there were fingers present. She is in ICU this evening, and will probably be transferred to the appropriate unit tomorrow. The final biopsy's won't be available until early next week. At that time he will make his recommendations re: chemo and/or radiation.
Needless to say, my sister is beyond devestation to the point where she is almost unable to function.
She still visit's Eric's grave at least twice a week. We are not only concerned about Mallory, but Lisa is very fragile, and we are keeping a very close eye on her.The rarity of this happening to two siblings is beyond comprehension, and it had been discovered at the time of Eric's diagnosis, that he was missing chromosome 18. Genetic testing is now underway to determine of Mallory is also missing that same chromosome, which has been explained to us can cause this type of tumor. Several of Lisa's other children are in contact with their insurance companies to see if they will pay for this testing.
Lisa and her brother Richard were adopted by our parents when they were only 3 and 5 years old, so genetically there is no connection. Lisa's husband Tom, Mallory's father has no incidence of this genetic abnormality. Lisa recently reconnected with her birth family, and there does not seem to be any such abnormalities there either.
Lisa is blaming herself saying she must have done something wrong that two of her children have this horrible cancer. Like I said, she is in a very fragile state, and she is never left alone.
Please forgive me for not being here. I love all of my baking friends, and the support I received when Eric was so sick got me through one of the worst times of my life.
I will try to update all of you when I can. Blessings to all...Chris (Wonky)
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