At Twenty-Four years old Shelsi Stolworthy couldn’t seem to shake a cough that had plagued her since October 2006. Along with the cough was the occasional fever and drenching night sweats. However, it didn’t seem serious enough to send her for x-rays. Eventually she did visit a doctor who prescribed antibiotics for what was believed to be bronchitis, but still her cough persisted. What frustrated her most about this was not being able to sing. This was also a problem for those of us who have heard her angelic voice.

On January 25, 2007, after deciding she couldn’t take being sick another day, in Shelsi’s own words, this is what happened next:

"Today is the 25th of January (2008). January 25th, 2007 is when I was diagnosed with Cancer. I remember everything seemed to happen so quickly that day. I went in for a chest x-ray. As soon as the doctor read it he told me to go to Urgent Care for another Doctor's opinion. I was shocked to hear him tell me that I needed to go to the ER at Ventura County Medical Center. I made some phone calls, packed a bag, and Eric and I headed off to the ER. The place looked really packed and we thought we'd be waiting all night. To our surprise, we were called up and I was stuck with my first IV in my hand. I had to look away. It wasn't too painful, though. Just uncomfortable. Then I went back to the waiting area and only had to wait a short while till I was called back to a little area with a bed and curtains. Sometime in the mix of things I was taken to get a CT scan. Then one doctor after another came to talk to me. I remember one doctor telling me how incredibly serious this was. No one knew exactly what was going on in me, but they knew it wasn't good. It kind of felt like a dream to me. The doctors were very nice and sincerely concerned. We were up all night until we got transferred to a room. The first big procedure that was done was a bone marrow biopsy. Although they shot me with some medicine to numb me, I could still feel pain as they ground their tools into my lower back bone to get enough bone marrow. Actually, I think that was the second big procedure. The first was to biopsy the mass in my chest to see whether or not it was cancerous. That was a breeze because I was given morphine and numbed up so much that I couldn't feel a thing. I just remember this skinny tube thing sticking out of my chest. Later, I was getting a EKG done when my doctor walked in. He told me that the biopsy results showed that it was cancer. He had tears in his eyes. I didn't cry. I just remember nodding and saying "uh huh, okay, alright, uh huh...etc." as he told me. When I came back to my room, everyone was in there, crying and teary-eyed. This all may sound depressing but it really isn't when you think about all the healing and miracles that have taken place. Well, I'm still waiting to hear from the hospital so I'm guessing the MRI isn't going to get done until next week, which might be for the best. I will update again soon! Bye for now!"

The official diagnosis is primary mediastinal diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Believe it or not that’s the good news. Out of all the cancers she could have, that’s one of the most treatable. The not so good news was the lack of protocol for treating someone whose Lymphoma had infiltrated the heart. They were concerned that as the chemotherapy drugs attacked the cancer cells within the heart wall it might leave behind holes – which for obvious reason would not be a good thing.

The heart involvement also made it more difficult to find a suitable Tertiary Facility -- one that could provide a Cardiothoracic Surgeon as well as an Oncologist. That's why it took until February 1 (a total of 5 days) for her to finally be transported, by ambulance, from Ventura County Medical Center, to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where a Cardiothoracic Surgeon had agreed to take her case along with Dr. Lill, head of the out-patient Cancer Center and Medical Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Cedars Sinai.

She spent most of February in the Saperstein Critical Care unit at Cedars, but was moved to the oncology floor between rounds one and two of chemo because she had done so well with round one. However, the night when she got her second infusion, her heart began to have serious issues, racing over 150 BPM and then dropping where there was a pause of almost 5 seconds between beats. They quickly moved her back to Saperstein Critical Care. Thankfully, within a couple of days, her heart stabilized. During this tense period of her treatment, the shadow of open heart surgery loomed in everyone's mind.

On March 2, after 34 days of hospitalization, and two rounds of chemotherapy with the cardiac and oncology teams close at hand, she was finally released to go home with a heart monitor which was designed to send a signal directly to a physician if her heart misbehaved. She completed the remaining 6 rounds of chemo as an out-patient, and then went on to get 17 days of radiation to her chest.

A few weeks later, in a follow up appointment with Dr. Lill, he told her to try and get back to her normal life and forget about all this cancer stuff. She had already enrolled in the fall semester at school and had been to her first week of classes. However, strange headaches that started in her neck and ran up the back of her head, began to frequent her days. Over time they got worse, and were joined by vomiting. After a brain scan on August 28, a 5-6 cm mass was discovered in the left frontal lobe of her head. She was admitted back to Cedars on August 29, and on the 30th she underwent brain surgery to remove the mass. Dr. Ray Chu was her Neurosurgeon, who we found out was a personal friend of Mike Seay, another friend of Shelsi and Eric. Small world huh?

Although they initially got the entire mass, microscopic cells are always left behind. So even though she received 6 out of 8 rounds of high dose Methotrexate, a Chemotherapy drug which is known for its ability to cross the blood brain barrier that many chemotherapy drugs cannot, around the end of November an MRI revealed the tumor had started to grow again.

Her chemotherapy was discontinued and a month of whole brain radiation began - but not before a team of top doctors from Cedars Sinai was brought together to work on her case. They have spent countless hours coming up with the best course of treatment for her. Amidst the frustration of once again losing her hair and having her perfect oval face swell up again due to the steroids, she has, in her usual Shelsi style, continued gracing us with her amazing faith, attitude and beautiful smile.

Today, January 28, 2008 she was readmitted to Cedars to get an MRI and full body scan to see if the radiation did its thing to blast away that nasty tumor in her brain, preparing her for a stem cell transplant which will give her a new cancer free immune system.

Enjoy this website, created for her by Steve Lawson in the beginning of this journey, to help connect her friends and family worldwide. Updates are posted usually about once a week - or as news warrants. From the beginning emails that were sent out about Shelsi’s condition, to the most recent events, it tells the story of this journey, Shel’s brave and amazing attitude, her humor at losing her hair and her compassion for those of us who love her. It also demonstrates the miracles that have transpired through modern medicine, wonderful caring doctors & staff, but most of all amazing faith, prayers and love from all over the globe.