Fighting Together For Caitlin

Caitlin is a 25 year old mother to a 2 yr old son and the daughter of a licensed optician at Wing Eyecare, so when she began having blurry vision in her right eye she knew to ask what could be causing it. Since it would come and go they thought it could be dry eye. Caitlin tried eye drops but when those didn't help she was advised to make an appointment with the Optometrist. Upon his initial examination and reviewing additional scans of inside and behind Caitlin's eyes, the optometrist diagnosed Caitlin with a pseudo tumor and referred her to a specialist. Caitlin underwent a MRI before being diagnosed with a diffused astrocytoma glioma, a brain tumor, and it is inoperable.

In addition to having to deal with the initial shock of a potential cancer diagnosis, Caitlin and her family had to begin the process of meeting with several other specialists and enduring more tests including brain surgery for a biopsy. Just when she and her family needed some good news and encouragement, they got the results of the biopsy that her tumor, although it does take up 40% of her brain, was not malignant and it is treatable! These types of brain tumors are very unpredictable and have the potential to become malignant, so the decision to act quickly on a treatment plan needed to be made.

Caitlin will go through radiation and chemotherapy to hopefully reduce the size of the tumor. She will endure 30 sessions of radiation before starting a very aggressive chemotherapy schedule which will go for an additional 9 months. Due to the aggressive treatment plan she will not be able to keep working. The hope is that after this lengthy treatment plan there may be a chance to remove the tumor. Caitlin has a long road ahead of her but with her very dedicated family, friends and medical team everyone is very hopeful for her future.

To help offset some of the income that she will lose while going through treatment and to bring about brain tumor awareness, a fundraiser has been set up so that those who would care to show support can let Caitlin and her family know that they are not in this fight alone. T-shirts are being sold and all proceeds will go to Caitlin to help with bills and, more importantly, to make sure that her son, Wesley, is cared for. Please participate in the fundraiser and if you have any questions or would like to know how to show support in other ways, please contact Ruthie @ 513-371-8004 or email at rwilson@wingeyecare.com