Kris

You never think that it will happen to you, it's just something that you hear about. Something that someone else has. Cancer...... that six-letter word that can change your life in a blink of an eye. My brother-in-law, Kris, was diagnosed with cancer in July, and is still currently on his journey to recovery.

It started out with him having symptoms of double vision and eye pain. Kris is a man who never complains of being sick or hurt, and never goes to the doctor for anything. But on that day, he went to the ER, they did some scans and found a large mass in his head. The hospital immediately sent him via ambulance from Colorado to the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City. Kenzee and Kris' parents drove from Green River to meet up with him, and waited for, I'm sure, what seemed forever for him to arrive. Once there, they did multiple scans and found the mass to be on the right side of his head, located between the skull and brain, 3 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. The news of this was very frightening for both families, because you can't help but think the worst. They sent him home a few days later, only to have him come back to have a biopsy done I think a week after.

Then they got the call. The call that no one wants. The biopsy came back and it was cancer. Chondrosarcoma. Kenzee was devistated, and began crying. She related to me that Declan, their 3 year-old, came up to her and asked what's wrong. She said "I'm just worried about daddy". Declan told her "don't worry momma, he'll be okay". He's such a sweet boy, and loves his dad so much.

From that point, appointments were made to meet with 3 different surgeons to discuss the procedure to surgically remove the tumor. It was to be a very lengthy procedure, and multiple things could go wrong, but the surgeons were very optimistic. One of the surgeons later told Kris that after they found what type of cancer Kris had, the surgeon was traveling around the U.S. going to seminars and ended up specifically talking about Kris' case with multiple doctors and discussed what options there were. This was an amazing blessing, because Kris' cancer is so rare, that there just happened to be a doctor there who specialized in it and knew what needed to be done. The doctor returned with a strategy and surgery was scheduled for August 19th.

Surgery ended up being 15 hours long. Kenzee and Kris' family were at the hospital waiting, and I can't imagine what that must have been like. It felt like forever just waiting to hear updates from them. But Kris made it through the surgery, minus his inner ear (which was lost due to the fact of the location of the tumor and the only way to get it out was to remove the inner ear), was in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks, and was finally released to go home. He's been going through physical therapy to get some of his mobility and speech back. But over-all, he looks amazing and even better, the tumor is gone.

Currently Kris and Kenzee are out in Boston, where Kris is receiving Proton Radiation therapy. They had to go out to Boston, because that specific type of radiation therapy is only done in two places around the United States. Boston and Houston. I believe that he must go through radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks. They are doing this as a precaution to make sure that any microscopic fragments of the tumor that may have been left behind are killed with the radiation.

The out poor of love, words of encouragement and concern for Kris, my sister and their little family has been overwhelming. I received multiple emails, phone calls, texts, etc. during that time, asking how they were and if they could help. The Lord truly was looking out for them, and has blessed them greatly with this miracle that he even survived the surgery, and that he very well may be cancer free soon. I can only pray that the treatments will go well for him and that he will have the spirit of the Lord to help him through these next weeks. I believe in miracles. I know that God lives and loves us all. We love you very much Kris, and can't wait for you to be home soon.