Cancer can’t keep Milton woman from smiling

 

By Jeff Shaffer Staff writer
Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 9:43 AM CDT
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LOOKING FOR LOCAL SUPPORT — Tina Crawford, left, is looking to help raise some money for her stepdaughter. Mindy Crawford was diagnosed with brain cancer over a year ago. Her condition is being called ‘stable’ but the bills are still piling in, and she is unable to work. The goal at the planned Casino Night is to raise $15,000, according to Tina. Photo by Jeff Shaffer/Standard Journal

MILTON — In the mildest of terms, it hasn’t been easy for Mindy Crawford over the past few years.
In early 2005, Mindy’s world has been turned upside down. And perhaps the only reason she is still smiling is because the love and support she’s received from her family, friends and neighbors.

Will you continue to help her?

Mindy, a 29-year-old Milton resident, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer over a year ago, and is unable to work. However, the insurance, bills and other expenses keep piling up. She also shares custody of her 9-year-old son. Her fiance, Ty Gemberling, is working second and third shifts at his job, but the worry on how to pay for everything remains.

Mindy can date her struggle back to her 27th birthday, when she experienced a grand mal seizure and was taken to the hospital. A brain scan showed she had four lesions on the left side of her brain, and after a couple of professional opinions, her spots were called benign and she was diagnosed with epilepsy.

For nearly a year, she remained seizure-free on medication, but was not allowed to drive for six months just in case. In the early days of 2006, Mindy started having partial seizures, which only involved the right side of her body. Again, she was taken to the hospital and admitted for more than a week. Her new medications were making her sick until the doses were corrected. Still she was diagnosed with benign tumors.

In June of last year, Mindy learned that her tumors, malignant or benign, were inoperable because surgery posed a risk to vital motor skills and memory.

On Aug. 8, 2006, Mindy, a 1996 Milton grad who was working as a dental hygienist, had a seizure at work. Continuing to work would have proved to be unsafe, so she stopped. In the following weeks, she was averaging 12 seizures a day.

Later in August, doctors attempted to “reboot” her system to eliminate the seizures with high doses of a powerful drug.

Acting on the advice of a friend, Mindy left for Pittsburgh to get another opinion on her condition and the prescribed treatment. In Pittsburgh, doctors performed a steriotactic brain biopsy, noting at the original meeting there were changes in her brain scans. Then, she waited.

“It was frustrating, not knowing what was wrong,” Mindy said. “People were constantly calling me; those were some of the longest days of my life.”

Sept. 13, 2006, is Mindy’s “D-day” as she put it — the day the doctor diagnosed her with having at least three anaplastic astrocytomas grade III, or brain cancer. She said she remembers trying hard to pay attention and hold herself together while jotting notes to pass on information to family and friends.

She hung up with the doctor, but then recalled she never got a prognosis. She called and hesitantly asked.

“He reported to me as stoic as could be ‘I don’t have a crystal ball, but typically you would have three to five years,’” she said.

She began to cry, and she was spending that day alone. By that evening, family and friends filled her home. In the time ahead, everybody was there for her, uprooting their own lives for her, she said.

Following a second opinion, which supported the cancer diagnosis, the plan was to start radiation and chemo therapy.

Mindy will finish chemo in November. Although she’s been told she’ll have cancer for the rest of her life, her condition is currently labeled stable. Brain cancer is different from others, the tumors aren’t known to shrink. Mindy said she still experiences seizures, but they have been reduced to about three a month.

“It’s been rough,” said her fiance, Ty. “She’s gone through in a year what some people would go through in a lifetime.”

Tina agrees that it’s been hard.

“(As a mom) you spend your lives helping them, but with this you just can’t fix it,” she said.

Mindy has been able to hold on to her insurance for the time being but has applied for Social Security disability. She was denied. However, it’s Ty’s understanding that about 90 percent of people are denied the first time.

This past year, she started “Team Mindy,” a Relay for Life team in Milton. In all, her team raised more than $8,000. She’s looking forward to supporting the Relay again this year.

Jeff Shaffer: 570-742-9671

jeff@standard-journal.com