On September 25th, 2017 Mark suffered a seizure out of the blue while at work in Milwaukee and was taken to the local hospital for tests. They located a mass in his brain and sent him via ambulance to Rush Hospital in Chicago for further testing. On September 29th, he had brain biopsy surgery which the results showed a Grade 4 Glioblastoma, which rocked our family to the core.
We met with the cancer teams at Rush and at Northwestern. Ultimately deciding to go with Northwestern due to a stem cell/cold virus clinical trial. On October 12th, Mark went in for a 2nd surgery and the doctors were able to remove a significant portion of the tumor and inject a cold virus into his brain. Think of it as the PacMan game. The cold virus seeks out the cancer cells and eats them away until they die. Following surgery, Mark began six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. He had one month off and began six more cycles of chemotherapy. Thankfully, the only side effect has been sleep deprivation from all the steroids he is taking for the inflammation in his brain. Mark is on the back half of his treatments, getting MRI’s every two months and continues to pray for Gods will and healing. Mark and Laura Shellady make their home in Glen Ellyn where they are raising their three children, Geoffrey, and twins, Matthew and Sarah. Geoffrey is finishing up his sophomore year at University of Virginia while the twins are juniors at Glenbard West. The Shellady Family would like to thank the BTB Foundation and our numerous friends for their love and support! |