Dear Friends and Family,
What an ordeal this is. As you must know by now...UCLA diagnosed me with a terrible disease...neoplastic meningitis which is like cancer having meningitis. It is in my inner auditory canals so i am totally deaf which makes it impossible to talk to doctors on the phone or drive a car. They also found two lesions in my lower lumbar spinal cord. This is not a good diagnosis. I am starting 10 whole brain radiations which will probably cause short term memory deficits they said. I was supposed to have an Ommaya reservoir placed in my brain for infusions of a chemo called depocyte but turned in down. ThenI went to New York to see a Dr. Raymond Chang of the Meridien Group. He gave me an infusion, a shot, and hundreds of pills to take. Very expensive and not covered by insurance. We'll see how that goes first. I am supposed to go back to NY an about 3 weeks for more of the same. It has worked on some of his patients that were in worse shape than me he said. This is just horrific. I've had many panic attacks throughout all of this, but I am coping the best I can. I am taking Lexapro for depression for the last 10 days.
I am going to see about setting up some kind of fundraiser to try to cover these expenses. I wish there were some other way to get rid of this disease, the option of the chemo reservoir is my last resort. They also recommended later to have whole spine radiation which would destroy some of my bone marrow. All these options, if I can get through them leave me incapacitated in some way.
Meanwhile, I am hanging in there. My son, AJ, is living with us during this time thank God. He has been such a help. Joe is travelling part of this month trying to earn some money. Anyone who wants to visit...come on. Anyone who wants to help out in any way, be it finances, transportation, airline tickets, clinical trials, great hospital and doctors and how to get me to them, pull or power to get things done quickly...thank you ahead of time.
I have the will to survive...I have a lot to live for still and I want to do and see so many things yet.
All my love,
Martha
read more about Martha's treatment
The Talbert Family Foundation will donate 100% of the monies received in this fund
to Marth and her family to help with the ongoing day to day and medical needs
