Friday, October 28, 2011

Susan Brewer's Story

The purpose of this website is to provide updates to Susan Brewer's loved ones on the progress of her fight against brain cancer.

Susan was diagnosed with Glioblastoma in December, 2010 (shortly before Christmas). While on vacation in Hawaii with Craig, she began to develop some strange symptoms and thankfully was able to fly home to Seattle, and was taken immediately to the ER upon their return. Over the next few days a large brain tumor (about the size of a golf ball) was discovered. Successful surgery to remove the tumor took place about a week later, and miraculously Susan recovered enough in a very short time in order to be able to go home for Christmas. It was the most blessed Christmas our family has had to date, knowing how close we came to losing our mom.

Over the course of the following days, weeks, and months there was a lot more testing and gameplanning for the treatment of Susan's cancer. There have been some major ups and downs throughout this whole ordeal, but her attitude simply could not be any better and the love and prayer that she has been surrounded with is nothing short of amazing. Susan is so thankful for every single day that God provides her, and we, too, are thankful for every day that the Lord blesses us with her presence.

Shortly after that first surgery, chemotheraphy began (and continues to this day in pill form). There were some big hiccups with insurance coverage at first, but we did finally get that all squared away. She went on radiation for about 2 months and did lose some hair, but it's growing back very nicely at this point. She also now goes in about once every 2-3 weeks for Avastin treatments (via IV) and routinely has follow-up MRI's to scan for any new tumors.

Fast forward to now, late October 2011, and a LOT has happened but by the grace of God, Susan just continues to beat the odds! There have been two seperate occasions where new (very small) tumors were detected and the doctors were able to remove them via at non-invasive treatment known as CyberKnife. The first round of this took place in the spring, and they sucessfully killed off the tumor at that time. Late in the summer, two new (small) tumors were detected and as of this week, after another CyberKnife treatment, the latest MRI showed that they had already shrunk by about 50% (fabulous news according to her chief Doctor, Greg Foltz).

We took a family vacation in April...a cruise to the Bahamas...and were able to enjoy a lot of quality time with eachother. Here is a picture of eveyone aboard the Celebrity Equinox:


About a month ago our family and about 25 friends gathered to support Susan in the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk at Seattle Center. The outpouring of support was amazing, and our team raised over $3,000 to support brain cancer research. Thank you all so very much!

We will continue to use this blog website to provide updates about Susan, and we welcome you to join and post any comments / thoughts / prayers that you see fit. We can't thank you enough for your love and support, and we speak for Susan when we say that she can feel your loving arms around her no matter where you are.

God Bless,

Cory - Kelsey - Ashley - and Craig

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