Meet Ashley

Hi, my name is Ashley. I’m 26 years old. On 12/11/23, I went in for a brain MRI after 9 months of symptoms concerning for focal seizures. Thirty minutes after I left my MRI, I opened MyChart to a radiology report that informed me of a brain tumor. At the time, I was in my last year of medical school and was in the middle of residency interview season. I had to pull myself together to do many interviews while trying to pretend that my entire world wasn’t falling apart.

On 1/9/24, I underwent a 4.5 hour surgery to remove the tumor. Recovery was hard. It was filled with a lot of pain and frustration about how slow my memory was to improve after surgery. Fortunately, at 4 weeks post-op, I was 100% back to myself without a single neurologic deficit.

Harder than recovery, though, was the agonizing wait for pathology results that ensued. About 4.5 weeks after surgery, I got news that my tumor was cancerous but that the diagnosis was unclear. After transfer of my tumor to 4 different institutions and 10.5 weeks of waiting, I had to accept that an exact diagnosis wasn’t possible, even from top neuro-oncology experts. I was generically given the diagnosis of an “ungraded, unspecified glial/glioneuronal neoplasm with BRAF and TERT mutations.” 

Following this news, I started 6 weeks of daily radiation therapy, which I completed on 4/26/24. Following radiation, I was told I would have one month off before starting two daily oral chemo medications that I would be on for 2+ years. These medications were only recently introduced to neuro-oncology for use in brain tumors, and there was very limited data to assess the risk of infertility from them. Due to this uncertain fertility risk, I decided I wanted to freeze my eggs prior to starting the chemo meds.

I was shocked by the cost of fertility preservation and was in a difficult situation trying to figure out how I would afford it. I had spent the last 4 years as a medical student, paying crazy tuition prices and without an income. I had spent so many years in pursuit of helping others and found myself in a place where I really needed help. I don’t know that it would have been possible to freeze my eggs without the grant from Team Maggie’s Dream. 

I currently have no evidence of cancer on imaging and am under close surveillance by my oncologists. I graduated as a doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 5/2024!! I will be starting pediatrics residency in 7/2024 at the # 1 pediatric hospital in the nation, Cincinnati Children’s, the same place that I’m receiving care! My future career aspiration is to become a pediatric oncologist!