We're home! Eight hours in surgery, then overnight at Mayo- after it took almost three hours for her to wake up, which was terrifying. But it was a spectacular success, everything went according to plan with no major complications. She's doing really well. The pain is significant, she can't taste anything, she'll bleed from her nose for some time, and there's some (hopefully temporary) nerve damage in her face and left shoulder, but we're both just relieved that the tumors are out. Maybe the shock of learning they planned to operate the day before it happened was for the best. This is all happening so fast, there's no time for fear.
She'll have a few weeks to recover before radiation. Your support is deeply appreciated, especially since my time as sole caregiver began sooner than expected. I'll return to work for a little while if Brittany recovers enough to be home alone before radiation starts, but that won't be possible for a while yet.
She's tough. I have faith in her. Thank you, everyone. I will include some of the notes from the surgical dream team that pulled this off. It's incredible that this was even possible. We are so grateful.
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph… Christopher Rath needs your support for
Spare a thought for my brave wife who is still washing massive blood clot jellyfish out of her nose. Bunch of appointments this week including physical therapy for the nerve damage.
We're home! Eight hours in surgery, then overnight at Mayo- after it took almost three hours for her to wake up, which was terrifying. But it was a spectacular success, everything went according to plan with no major complications. She's doing really well. The pain is significant, she can't taste anything, she'll bleed from her nose for some time, and there's some (hopefully temporary) nerve damage in her face and left shoulder, but we're both just relieved that the tumors are out. Maybe the shock of learning they planned to operate the day before it happened was for the best. This is all happening so fast, there's no time for fear.
She'll have a few weeks to recover before radiation. Your support is deeply appreciated, especially since my time as sole caregiver began sooner than expected. I'll return to work for a little while if Brittany recovers enough to be home alone before radiation starts, but that won't be possible for a while yet.
She's tough. I have faith in her. Thank you, everyone. I will include some of the notes from the surgical dream team that pulled this off. It's incredible that this was even possible. We are so grateful.
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph… Christopher Rath needs your support for
We're home! Eight hours in surgery, then overnight at Mayo- after it took almost three hours for her to wake up, which was terrifying. But it was a spectacular success, everything went according to plan with no major complications. She's doing really well. The pain is significant, she can't taste anything, she'll bleed from her nose for some time, and there's some (hopefully temporary) nerve damage in her face and left shoulder, but we're both just relieved that the tumors are out. Maybe the shock of learning they planned to operate the day before it happened was for the best. This is all happening so fast, there's no time for fear.
She'll have a few weeks to recover before radiation. Your support is deeply appreciated, especially since my time as sole caregiver began sooner than expected. I'll return to work for a little while if Brittany recovers enough to be home alone before radiation starts, but that won't be possible for a while yet.
She's tough. I have faith in her. Thank you, everyone. I will include some of the notes from the surgical dream team that pulled this off. It's incredible that this was even possible. We are so grateful.
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph… Christopher Rath needs your support for
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph… Christopher Rath needs your support for
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph nodes in her neck. Doctor after doctor, biopsies, core samples, ultrasounds, endless tests, surgery. The fear and frustration we felt watching them grow without any answers was indescribable. Finally, Mayo Clinic experts identified something no one expected, and few have heard of: pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma with EGFL7-FOSB fusion. Cancer, an ultra-rare sarcoma. She is the third documented case with EGFL7-FOSB fusion, which is believed to make it more aggressive, and the first woman. She is 35.
PET scans revealed that the lymph nodes (a dozen of them, the larger ones golf-ball-sized, three removed so far) are metastatic. The origin point is in her head, dead center beneath her brain.
Mayo is going to operate in the next 4-6 weeks. The plan is to follow this with proton beam radiation, once a day, every weekday, for almost two months. We can go home on the weekends. We will need to stay in Rochester during the week. We can't stay at the Hope Lodge because we have a pet who needs twice-daily medication. Our beloved cat Fortune is already costing us a fortune in ongoing vet bills for feline triaditis, which couldn't be happening at a worse time. Mayo can get us a patient rate in a partner hotel, but it's going to be a significant cost, and a lot of time I won't be able to work. I'm hoping to apply for paid leave, but whatever happens, this is going to be expensive. This is absolutely dominating our lives.
Brittany is incredible. She is so smart, and so talented, and so good, and so young. She's an artist and a wonderful writer. She loves bubble tea and scary movies. She sings little songs to our cats. You can see her hair from a block away. I'll always remember the first time I did, from a bus, traveling across the country to visit her after falling in love with each other's blogs and then each other in 2012. I thought she was catfishing me at first. I thought she was too good to be true; too cool, too smart, too funny, far too beautiful. But she's real. She's the love of my life.
Brittany has been too sick to work for a long time. I work one full-time job as a home health PCA, and another in a facility (assisted living, memory care, and hospice). I'm grateful that the patient care skills I've learned are helping me take care of her.
We have already been through so much. We've both had to work hard for our life together, far away from other family, battling ongoing health problems. It's just us and the rescue pets (two cats and a chinchilla) in a little apartment, but we don't need much. We don't even have a car (on purpose). We just need to find a way to cover rent and expenses while Brittany recovers.
This cancer is too rare for any confident prognosis. I have to believe she'll recover.
Thank you for reading our story. Please help us if you can.
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph… Christopher Rath needs your support for
My wife Brittany is sick. It took a long time to diagnose the cause of the massively enlarged lymph nodes in her neck. Doctor after doctor, biopsies, core samples, ultrasounds, endless tests, surgery. The fear and frustration we felt watching them grow without any answers was indescribable. Finally, Mayo Clinic experts identified something no one expected, and few have heard of: pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma with EGFL7-FOSB fusion. Cancer, an ultra-rare sarcoma. She is the third documented case with EGFL7-FOSB fusion, which is believed to make it more aggressive, and the first woman. She is 35.
PET scans revealed that the lymph nodes (a dozen of them, the larger ones golf-ball-sized, three removed so far) are metastatic. The origin point is in her head, dead center beneath her brain.
Mayo is going to operate in the next 4-6 weeks. The plan is to follow this with proton beam radiation, once a day, every weekday, for almost two months. We can go home on the weekends. We will need to stay in Rochester during the week. We can't stay at the Hope Lodge because we have a pet who needs twice-daily medication. Our beloved cat Fortune is already costing us a fortune in ongoing vet bills for feline triaditis, which couldn't be happening at a worse time. Mayo can get us a patient rate in a partner hotel, but it's going to be a significant cost, and a lot of time I won't be able to work. I'm hoping to apply for paid leave, but whatever happens, this is going to be expensive. This is absolutely dominating our lives.
Brittany is incredible. She is so smart, and so talented, and so good, and so young. She's an artist and a wonderful writer. She loves bubble tea and scary movies. She sings little songs to our cats. You can see her hair from a block away. I'll always remember the first time I did, from a bus, traveling across the country to visit her after falling in love with each other's blogs and then each other in 2012. I thought she was catfishing me at first. I thought she was too good to be true; too cool, too smart, too funny, far too beautiful. But she's real. She's the love of my life.
Brittany has been too sick to work for a long time. I work one full-time job as a home health PCA, and another in a facility (assisted living, memory care, and hospice). I'm grateful that the patient care skills I've learned are helping me take care of her.
We have already been through so much. We've both had to work hard for our life together, far away from other family, battling ongoing health problems. It's just us and the rescue pets (two cats and a chinchilla) in a little apartment, but we don't need much. We don't even have a car (on purpose). We just need to find a way to cover rent and expenses while Brittany recovers.
This cancer is too rare for any confident prognosis. I have to believe she'll recover.
Thank you for reading our story. Please help us if you can.
My family is pretending that I don't have cancer and this is escalating my depression and psychosis risk. I really need more support while I prepare for treatment for pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma, one of the rarest cancers in the world.
Treatment is experimental and disease progression can't be staged like other cancers.
I'm really scared of what the next few months are going to be like. It would mean a lot to me if everyone could please share my gofundme to help my husband @tategoi and I cover costs while he goes on leave to help me recover.
My wife Brittany was recently diagnosed with an ultra-rare sarcoma in her neck, and she was referre… Christopher Rath needs your support for
I will need surgery and up to six weeks of radiation out of town, so we will have to find pet-approved lodging. I'm also going to need a lot of supplies that may or may not be covered by my insurance (especially medicated mouth rinses, a nebulizer, various dry mouth products, medicated creams, etc)
Pleasepleaseplease share this even if you can't donate. I know many of you are also struggling.
Hello friends and fairy freaks. We need help. I'm already $3k in the hole on vet bills and now I gotta take time off work because my wife has cancer. It's like we've been cursed. Here's some cat pictures.
Okay, so, we need a bunch of money to stay in Rochester during radiation treatment, which needs to happen almost every day for like six weeks. We can come home on the weekends. They have partner hotels with lower rates for radiation patients but we can't stay in their dedicated cancer patient lodging because Fortune needs his meds every 12 hours and they won't let any animals in. Understandable but, like, come on. He's nice.
Anyway. Mayo says they see maybe five cases a year but this is the first time they've seen it in the head.
Hello friends and fairy freaks. We need help. I'm already $3k in the hole on vet bills and now I gotta take time off work because my wife has cancer. It's like we've been cursed. Here's some cat pictures.
ok what about swan maidens are they more in of a cursed situation like werewolves?
or are they actually swans wanting human partners?
sorry my understanding of this myth creature is more from an animated movie than actual folklores
oh sincere! sincerity! oh shit i was being funny! i could've been infodumping this whole time?? fuck
swan maidens come from a variety of fairy tales, the most famous (european) one probably being Swan Lake. in that case it was a curse situation, so a sorcerer had cast a spell on them to only be women when the light of the moon touched them. the rest of the times they were swans. this is cause they ran away from arranged marriages or cheated on their boyfriends or shit (the sorcerer was a sexist read The Black Swan by mercedes lackey for an amazing adaptation of swan lake). there's also stories of boy swans though! like The Six Swans (also bc of a curse). and there's leda and the swan where zeus turns into a bird to seduce* this woman, leda.
overall i know of instances of individual characters transforming into various birds as a power they have but i dont know of any staple myths about Swan People as like. a race. maybe cause we have angels for that niche? or maybe cause we have bird ladies in the form of harpies and stuff. most stories of bird people are about curses.
AND to answer your previous question about selkies: they are a different class of "underwater person" than mermaids. mermaids are permanently half fish half person, selkies are either 100% seal or 100% person; they have a magic seal skin they put on to transform. you could trap them as humans if you steal it. a lot of stories about them center around fishermen trapping them as their wives. 👎
*i am using this term delicately, how consensual the sex was is up to interpretation
i love this website so much bc an anon can be like "hey what's the difference between a pixie and a fairy?" and then the notes will be people recommending a 13th century germanic tome written in bone by an ascetic. as some light reading to get started.
look I don’t want to tell anyone what to do but if you go down that path you will wake up a thousand years later and all your great-grandchildren will be dead
