PORT ANGELES — For now, Karen Sproed must just wait and see if treatments for her brain tumor worked.
The 38-year-old was in Loma Linda, Calif., for seven weeks and returned last week from having radiation treatments to shrink what remained of the tumor.
She will find out April 7 how much of the tumor is gone, she said.
“I’m so thankful to have a great community because there were people being supportive and praying and helping out.”
Last year, doctors gave the Port Angeles single mother of three a 50 percent chance of surviving a series of surgeries to remove a tennis ball-sized tumor from the base of her brain stem.
Doctors used bone from her hip to rebuild part of her spine.
But the surgeries left a small portion of the tumor to be treated with radiation.
If the radiation doesn’t work, the tumor, which dissolved her spine underneath her brain stem, is likely to grow back.
She said in December that she wouldn’t go through additional surgeries if the radiation doesn’t work.
“I’m tired from the radiation and sometimes sore,” she said.
“But I’m home, and I can eat.
“I have my soup out.”
Most of all, she was glad to return to her children, Anthony, 17, Bubba, 15, and Khya, 5, she said.
“I’m so glad to see my 5-year-old daughter, because she missed me so much,” Sproed said.
“I’m home, and I’m cooking and going to church and doing what I can do,” she said.
She said her faith brought her through, and as she waits, she is hopeful.
Sproed said her Medicaid insurance is covering the cost of her medical treatment, but her family is in need of funds to cover bills as well as travel to visit doctors in Seattle and California.
She is living on $600 a month in state Department of Social and Health Services funds.
Donations can be made to a bank account in her name at Strait View Credit Union, 220 S. Lincoln St., Port Angeles.
She said she hopes to return to work as soon as possible if the radiation treatments are successful.
She worked as a hotel hostess before her illness caused her to leave her job.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
