Monday, November 17, 2014

Read This First

Hey Y'all!
This is Cally blogging on behalf of Karen and Brian.  They will be using this site to keep everyone updated about their current journey.  Every now and then,  I will post for them, too.

Let Me Catch You Up to Speed
As you may have heard, Brian found a tumor under his arm and was concerned about how quickly it had grown.  The tumor was biopsied and found to be a sarcoma, which is a form of cancer.  As of right now, they have not found out what kind of sarcoma it is.  To find out more about sarcomas, watch this video by click this link: What's New in Sarcoma Treatment

After additional scans, they found bilateral masses on his adrenal glands, as well.

So What is Next?
Brian has appointments on Thursday and Friday at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City.  They are hoping to be given some direction and find out more about the cancer and treatment plans (and eventually find out what kind of sarcoma it is). MSKCC is one of the top cancer centers in the nation. The family is confident that he is in the best hands. 

What Can You Do?
Be normal.  With all the craziness of appointments, uncertainty, and planning, Brian is pretty sick of talking about it all.  If you have questions or want to help, the best thing to do is talk to Karen or myself.  Continue to talk to Brian like you normally do.  Make fun of him.  Complain about traffic. Ask about the Redskins. Call him bald.

Karen, on the other hand, is okay with talking about the situation, and loves getting texts from everyone :) Feel free to contact her with words of encouragement, questions, and thoughts.

Many people have asked how they can help.  As of right now, the best way is prayer and encouragement and being normal.  Once they find out more, there will be updates about specific needs.  This whole situation is creating quite an emotional, logistics, and financial burden on their family.  I know we are all wanting to help, and Karen and Brian really appreciate the kindness of the community around them.  That being said, we are in a holding pattern for now, so stay tuned.

Karen and Brian are so thankful for the community around them.  They are blown away by the kindness and support they have already received.

4 comments:

  1. I certainly would rather keep up with the Newtons than the Kardashians! :) I am glad you have set this up and hope that you all won't hesitate to update when you're ready for some support. I've seen the burden cancer can have on a family and how often they can forget to have some fun when taking care of the needs. My point being, that I hope that I can show some support from far away and will follow along in hopes of doing so. Until then lots of positive thoughts and prayers to you!!

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  2. Lots of love and positive vibes to Newt, Karen, Harper and fam. Thank you for the update.

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  3. Sending you prayers for you and your family.

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  4. When I read your Blog, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The pictures capture Brian's wackiness perfectly. I'm pretty sure he would tell me to laugh...so I will. And I think he will laugh too if you don't mind sharing this story with him. Brian, I did a sorry job of the Smartboard presentation. I was up madly the night before watching youtube videos and learning "tricks". The day of the brief 30-min presentation I arrived shockingly early to the class, by 3 hours, and practiced using the Smartboard for nearly 2 hours. During that time I created a pretty savvy presentation that I was looking forward to sharing with the pre-service teachers. I had just enough time before the class started to save the presentation to the desktop and grab my water from my office. Upon returning to the classroom, I powered up the computer and...what?! No presentation anywhere in site. I guess COEHS has an "assassin" program that goes in and kills anything saved to the computer anytime you log off. Well, needless to say the presentation was pretty choppy and downhill from there. I'm just sayin', you are defiantly going to have a job when you beat this "sarcoma" pest. In person, I would use more aggressive language but I'm being nice in front of our internet audience. I'm rooting for you and sending positive happy thoughts to you and your family. Caroline Guardino, aka Dr. G

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