Imagine being a new mom, with a career you love and being in the peak of your young life, but then finding out you have brain cancer.
One Mandan P.E. teacher didn’t only beat the fatal cancer once, but recently found out she has to fight again.
“I still understand that these things happen, but positivity and what runs through your body is what’s going to make you either heal or suffer.”
29-year-old Kaidra Froelich was just starting her new life. She has a wonderful husband, two beautiful little girls, family and friends she wouldn’t trade for anything. But last year things took a turn for the worst.
“All of a sudden my face was kind of numb one morning. I could still feel it, but it was different from my left side and then a week later my right arm kind of went full and numb and that’s when I went into my doctor, Dr. Denise McDonough and I just had a feeling,” says Froelich.
She had some test run and was told she had a high-grade glioma growing on her brain stem and was told she had brain cancer.
“I didn’t know anyone with brain cancer and I had no idea that you can live through brain surgery, so that weekend with my family I kind of thought that weekend was my last and it was very emotional.”
But it wasn’t her last, Froelich had surgery immediately and the doctors were able to get 98 percent of the tumor out. The surgery was successful and her life went back to normal for almost a year until her symptoms came back this past summer.
“He noticed a small tumor down the spine a little bit, so when he came into the room, he said the anesthesiologist could go for now and he requested an MRI on my spine. The scan showed there were six more tumors down it so I have a total of seven tumors.”
One of the tumors is wrapped around her spinal cord which prevents her from doing any surgery right now. She now has had five full days of high dose proton radiation on her brain stem and six full doses down her back.
“About three weeks into it I started losing chunks of my hair, which I knew was going to happen,” says Froelich. “So I would just brush and brush and hair was falling out. So as of right now, my hair is gone and I had a friend of mine shave it. I still have little hair blotches but for the most part, all the hair follicles are coming out, but I don’t care about that. I don’t need hair… I just want to be here for as long as I can.”
In between doctor visits and trying to keep a normal life all she wants to do is spend as much time as she can with her friends, family, and most importantly her two baby girls.
“Knowing that I am going to be passing sooner rather than later and I had a lot of plans and I had a lot of plans for the rest of my life,” says Froelich. “One of the things I am actually doing is I am making trunks for my girls. I am putting birthday cards for every year. So, I started with Blake she is going to be 2 next January and Brynley will be 4 in March. So I’m starting right away and each year they are going to have a birthday card to open for me and little notes that I kind of write about them.”
Froelich has an amazing support system and started her own Facebook page to share her experience with others. She also has her own “Good Vibe Tribe” brand to inspire others going through the same situation.
Froelich’s friend Callie Wachendorf says “It’s about her being a mother, and a fighter, and a wife, and a friend. And I think that is really important that we understand that anyone that encounters a battle like this is never alone and you always have people around you who will come together to help however they can.”
For now, Froelich is hoping for the best and trying to stay positive through this upcoming journey.
“You know someday everybody is going to pass away and I guess I know what I am going to pass away from, but I don’t know my time,” says Froelich. “Yes, I want to live day by day, but I would also love to know the timing. I hope and pray I will be here for a long time, but I don’t know that. But I know what I am doing makes me feel good and I will be ok to pass when that comes.”
Kaidra has not received her most recent MRI results, so we hope she will get some positive news this Thursday and Friday. They will also have a Good Vibe Tribe Golf Scramble, September 7th to raise money for her medical bills.
To follow Kaidra’s journey and see her Good Vibes Tribe merchandise, click here.
