Hope In The Middle of The Storm: Christy's Story Part 2 Artwork

Always Hope

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Hope In The Middle of The Storm: Christy's Story Part 2

March 02, 2026 • Chuck Kizer • Season 1 • Episode 3

0:00 | 26:40

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What does it look like to rebuild a life after brain surgery when the prognosis is brutal and the calendar feels uncertain? Christy lets us into the unvarnished middle: asking permission to take a nap in week one, walking back into the robotics lab two weeks later to cheering students, and negotiating a return to work while doctors disagree on speed. Her story is not about heroics; it’s about choosing purpose over paralysis and embracing the messy blend of perseverance, caution, and grace.

We trace the arc from early recovery and role reversals at home to clean MRIs in the fall and a December family wedding that became a beacon. Christy shares how community care evolved from meals and messages to something deeper—permission to try, fail, rest, and still belong. She talks candidly about treatment: the routine of oral chemo, the fear and resolve of radiation under a molded mask, and the decision to wear the Optune device despite heat, weight, cables, and stares because it meaningfully improves survival odds for glioblastoma. Along the way, she wrestles with identity, entitlement, and control, learning to prepare others to lead while she remains present, invested, and real with her limits.

Faith threads through every scene. God shows up in honest clinicians, patient colleagues, a boss who says “take the cover off,” and quiet moments with her husband where grief meets gratitude. Christy names a livable middle between denial and despair: don’t sprint toward fantasy or collapse into fear. Take the next right step, treasure ordinary joy, and keep investing in young people and the future they represent. If you need a map for resilience, caregiving, glioblastoma treatment, or finding hope after life breaks your plan, this conversation offers practical courage and a steady voice that says you can still move forward.

If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review telling us your “next right step.”

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome back to Always Hope. This is part two of my conversation with Christy. If you're just jumping in, here's the quick recap. In part one, Christy walked us through the season where the weight got heavy, where life didn't match the plan and hope didn't feel automatic. But she kept

Picking Up After Surgery

SPEAKER_00 0:17

showing up. She kept taking the next right step even when she didn't have the energy for big steps. And now in part two, we're picking up right where we left off. What shifted, what helped, and what she'd say to the person listening right now who feels stuck in the middle. All right, let's get back into it. So we are past the surgery.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

It's now you know, week or two into August. There are benchmarks, time frames that they're looking at.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

So like take me from like August through December.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Oh, okay. When I first went home, I had to ask permission for everything. I can go to the bathroom now. I can I can eat soup now. I can like I'm asking permission in my own world. Can I move around? That's like the first three or four days. As I started kind of being more awake and

Early Recovery And Role Reversals

SPEAKER_01 1:15

and you're on all kinds of different medicines. I couldn't even tell you what they are. And you got this shot, and my my children are m managing me, you know, and everybody's which is something you've always wanted them to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Oh, yeah. No. Not at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Nope. Nope. That's the other way around. I'm supposed to be the mom. They're supposed to be kids. And I got to my one daughter's off to college already, the other one's starting a senior year. My my oldest daughter ended up being kind of the parent of the household. Troy had just started a job too. Like we were a hot mess. Seth was working all the time. Like, so Faye ended up being kind of the caretaker for all of that. And so I would ask her for permission. Can I I can go take a nap now? Yeah, why wouldn't you take a nap? And you know, she uh she takes care of disabled people with mental health care. And she is very gifted at getting to the root of what the need is and giving support and encouragement through it. I I think God has blessed her with a spirit that I don't think I've ever seen in anybody else. Oh wow. And for her to use it on me was both horrifying that this is who I am now, but such a blessing to know that there was this love from her just poured. It was amazing. So that that was like the first few, four days. Eventually I get bored. You know, I I don't want to take naps all day. I don't want to sit and watch television all day. But I was determined.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

And that's Christy being Christy.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I am, I I we run this robotics program and it means a great deal to me. And I didn't want it to go away. And

Returning To Robotics And Work

SPEAKER_01 2:48

and in the preemptive before the surgery, I'd set up other people doing all the things I do so that they don't fall. Right. But I kind of maybe am a little controlling and I'd really kind of like to be a part of it still. Yeah. So then I would say, Can I go to the lab? And they're like, Yes. And I'm like, I'm going to the lab. And they're like, okay. That was two weeks from brain surgery.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

I went to the So I'm getting the feeling that they're basically letting you do what you feel you can do.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

There's no holding Christy back.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Well, they they weren't saying that I had to ask. That was me inside going, I don't know what's right or wrong. You know, like you're gonna have to guide me a little bit. And so they did. I went to the lab and everybody cheered, and I got to see the kids, and that was such an amazing thing. And I went back home and I thought I was able to walk around for two and a half hours. I didn't make a fool of myself, I didn't fall over. I don't know that I got everything right, but I think I was understood. When can I go back to work? And so that was I'm gonna say August 8. Oh, wow. I mean, it was pretty early in it. So my first day back to school was August 25th.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Was it that soon?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

It was that soon, 19 days from surgery.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Because I was like, what am I gonna do at home? Now I was doing things. Like I had special books that I was reading. They got me a whole bunch of kids' books to make sure that my brain worked. I was doing math, which by the way, I failed at.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

You're never gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

But I always did. Yeah. I would do puzzles and coloring every single day and right and left, and and I would do specific things with my body to make sure that it was because I just wanted to do what I could do my job due diligence. But but they said I could come back and and work was amazing. They said I could come back part-time so that I could go slower and I would be missing still a lot of work for appointments. And so I was able to go back, and that was such a gift. Such a gift. My cancer doctors were like, Yeah, this is great. The inertia, right? If if it's in motion, the the better it'll be.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

My my neurologist surgeon was like, You've lost your damn mind. He was like,

Doctors Disagree On Pace

SPEAKER_01 5:00

You qualify for disability. Why would you do this to yourself? Don't don't do this to yourself. And I thought, if I can drive and I can talk and I can walk and I can self-care, then I have something left still to offer. So I'm gonna go do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

So this podcast is called Always Hope. And for anyone out there that's got glioblastoma, there is hope.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, there is hope.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

I mean, I know everybody's different, but you up to this point have been like the grade A, class A perfect student. Oh, yeah. Sits at the front of the room. You've been like on point in every way.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Completely baffled.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah. Yeah. And so that's been that's been beautiful to watch from from this side. And so we go through October, November. I remember those half days, and then you showed up, start showing up full days.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

I was sneaking.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

You're sneaking. We won't let your doctors listen to this. But you were we were sneaking, and then we made it, and you go to your daughter's wedding. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

I did. I just before that, uh, they had the last the big MRI of is the cancer back right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

How many of those scans have you had now?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

I've had three.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Three?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yep, and they've all been clean so far. That was in November, November 19th had that, and I asked them, can I go back full time? And they like roll their eyes at me, you know. But my daughter's wedding was December 20th. And so we waited till that time to make sure that I would

Clean Scans And A Family Wedding

SPEAKER_01 6:30

not have a relapse or anything before that. Got to go to her wedding. My kids made me a wig. That was interesting, fun. It was magically the exact same hairstyle as my other daughters.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I don't know that I've seen that wig.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Oh, I'll have to say you it's pretty cute. I look just like Faye.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

That's all.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

She did an amazing job. The caregiving overall from these medical facilities, from the uh people I work with, from the community at large, for my robotics family, from just everyone, the care and love and support.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

I I think that's mostly why I've been so successful at this. Yeah. Because how do you feel with that much love being thrown at you?

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah. That was actually one of the questions I was going to ask is how would the how's the community helped you uh shoulder this load?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

We had to begin with, it was food and DoorDash and snacks and balloons and you know, everything you could possibly have that way. Messages, concept messages, social media, phone, all that stuff, just presence, presents, like being in the room if I'm saying the wrong room.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

No, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Okay. That's a presence. Not gifts, particularly, although that happened too. Then it was, well, of course you can do this. Just the expectation of, of course you can. Yeah. Let's go, you know, which was amazing to me. And then the allowance. That is the biggest thing I probably struggle with right now is I have a lot of helpers, a lot of people that in their love are supporting me, whether it's they're taking hours for me for uh volunteer things that we do, whether it's my office mate likes to do lots of things to help me. Yeah. Or they won't ask me to do something because I might be sitting. Right. You know, and someone asking me to get up or telling me what they need. I have a lot of help.

Community Support And Allowing Help

SPEAKER_01 8:20

And it I know it comes from love and support, but it also there's that little uh fear of I'm still not good enough. I haven't earned the right to be here. But it how do you balance that with the other side of it? Is I won't stay. I won't be able to. I mean, that's just the reality of this situation, right? Right. So things still have to be in place. So how do you prepare for everything to move without you while still allowing you to sit in it? And I know, especially with robotics, that that's been the biggest, hardest thing. Hey, I'm gonna die. Please take this on. I need you to be me. I'm gonna stick my nose in it till I die. Okay. And they let you.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

And they allow you, and it's inconvenient and it's uncomfortable. But when you talk about a sacrifice of love, whether it's the teams at the high school or whether in the younger kids that we work with, they allow it. Same thing with my job. They allow it. I have ran out of time long before I ever came back, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

And they have supported that still. I'm gonna be gone for this day and this day and this day, and all five days of this, and they're like, okay, see ya. You know, who who does that? And and they're still making room for me, even though it's gonna be so temporary. It's it's a crazy gift. It's a crazy gift.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

So I'm the eternal optimist, and you keep using that word temporary, and temporary is relative. Yes. I just I I don't know that we're we don't have a crystal ball. True. But temporary could be a year. Yeah. The temporary could be fifteen years.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

My son's got it for 37 years. That's that's his own.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

There we go.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

For me, it's uh it's easy on my end. I get to go be with God.

unknown 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Oh no, it sounds terrible. You know, it's okay. Everybody else has to clean up the mess behind me. And so for that, I'm jealous of that time of whatever grandparent will look like that Troy gets to do that I I will miss. I I those kind of things. But I'm there's another part of me that says if you sit in denial of what you

Preparing Others While Staying Involved

SPEAKER_01 10:30

have and you there's a there's a midway between, oh no, I have cancer, I'm gonna sit on the couch and watch TV, versus I'm gonna go run a marathon tomorrow because I'm never gonna die. Right. I think there's a middle that's reality and still so much joy.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah. So what does like define that middle a little bit more? Like because the reality is glioblastoma is the ugliest. Ugliest cancer.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

And while we're thankful for these last six months, we didn't know if we were gonna have them with you. Right. We don't know what the next six months are gonna look like.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

But we're hoping like Alan for 37 years that'd make you 90.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

That'd be okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

I'm okay with ninety. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be a year older than you at that point.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

I made the mistake. I was uh running an errand for work and I was in the drive-thru of the bank, and they take a long time because they have a lot to count sometimes. And so I'm on my phone and I'm like, I wonder what happens at the end of life. Like, what does this look like at the end? And I ran through it. Bad mistake. I was a mess for like a whole two hours. I don't know that I recovered well. It is a really nasty disease. But I also think that the there's a a student we have at school that's mom's been fighting breast cancer for a decade nearly. That's pretty damn ugly. So I I don't know that I have it worse than somebody else. I do think I have something very definitive. I think there's more expectation of survival

Living With Uncertain Timelines

SPEAKER_01 12:04

in many cancers where this one just doesn't have it. And there are people I follow online, you know, groups.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I was gonna ask you about the community.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, there are people that say I had this 11 years ago I was diagnosed, or 27 years I was diagnosed. But for every one of those, you see they're young, they have this, it's called methylated, a chemical their body makes. They have these mutations that are already in in this place. And all those things are very supportive and helpful. And I don't got none of them. You know, I just I I got the worst kind of the worst kind, you know. But I don't know what made those people do better versus the 29-year-old marathon runner who who passed after six months. Like I don't know, none of us know that. But I can tell you there isn't anybody that doesn't uh succumb succumb to it eventually.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's still going strong. Yeah. What's treatment been like since you've since surgery?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

It's been exciting. Lots of pills at home, right? You got to take medicine. Chemotherapy for me is oral, and you you take it at night, you take like anti-nausea medicine, and then take that chemotherapy. And and I took my course of chemotherapy like the first, what is it, 42 days or whatever. And now I do five days a month with it. And they quadruple the dosage and they're trying to stop it, yeah. And so

Naming The Middle Ground

SPEAKER_01 13:40

is as much as your body can take of it. I think they try to give it to you just to do the best they can. Brain barriers don't love to help medicine, they like to block medicines, but it can stop the rest of your body from getting gross, surprisingly. There. Radiation was. I remember, I remember I cried when I first took the chemotherapy, like, I can't believe I'm putting this in my body. And then I said, But I don't have to sit in a room with a needle in my arm for, you know, for this amount of time where I'm gonna be sick and I'm not gonna be able to be functionable. Taking medicine. I'm gonna throw up a few times. Big hairy deal. It's really not that bad. Um, radiation, that one was harder for me. When I went in, they they lay on a bed and they stick this wet moldable plastic thing and they staple you to the bed with it. And it was emotional. And it was again the the list of this is who you're gonna be when you leave here. Maybe you're gonna lose all these abilities. Maybe it's gonna affect you in some way, clear up to death. I mean, those are realities with radiation, and you willingly let people do this to you while you're stapled to a bed. I I don't know how to explain it any better than that. And the first day I I outside of the hospital cried and threw up because it was upsetting. And then I stopped and said, This is supposed to help. Yeah. If you don't do it, you know what the outcome is. So you better embrace this. Yeah. And you better learn to be okay with it. And again, God has given the most amazing people that are straightforward,

Treatment Realities: Chemo And Radiation

SPEAKER_01 15:20

don't lie to you. Yep. This is the best we're gonna do for you. Yeah. And and then you just take a little nap during it, or hum a little song, or or you figure out how to get through that trapped feeling of terror. You know, because it's it's what you've got, you know. Since then I had like a month of nothing, which is actually more terrifying. I remember when radiation ended, I cried again because now nothing's protecting me.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

In your mind.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

So it makes me think of the Israelites. I want this. You gave me that. Now I want this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Never satisfied type of feeling.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

I definitely felt that way. Like I'm just so fickle. I didn't want this, but now I want it. That's when I learned about the opting device, which is the device I use now for my treatment. But no medicine, no nothing for all this time. And I'm thinking that first MRI of they did all this to you. You read all these things about other people that are now three or four tumors as opposed to, you know. So you don't know what your body's gonna do to it. You're told that you have these really bad things, and and we don't know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Tell us more about that. It's called Optune Device. Optune device.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

So it's a magnetic field, and it's five palm leaf-looking stickers that are north, south, east, west on your head between your ears and your crown.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Head completely shaved.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Head completely shaved, which was wow, am I more vain than I thought I was? Holy mackerel, that was worse than radiation, I'm telling you, because it took like two weeks for me to wrap my head around that one. And I fought for the opportunity to have it. It's not not everybody does it. It is three to five pounds carrying it around. It is annoying and hot and beepy, and there's these cords that stick off your head, and you get caught on everything that you walk everywhere. It is the most inconvenient thing in the whole world. And boy, am I awful glad I got it. Yeah. Because people with this, so 9% of people survive 18 months is statistics. And with the optune device, 41% do. Oh, wow. And so it doesn't cure cancer, right? But it creates a field that is non-conductive to cancer growth. And it can shrink tumors. I don't think it of it doesn't eradicate them, but it it can shrink them. And so kind of like we talked about flatten the curve a while back. Okay. So that is kind of the mental goal that I have in my head is we're flattening the curve of this six months, eighteen months, 36 months. Right. You know, I don't know any more bigger numbers. So, you know, going outward is at some point when it grows back, this device is supposed to at least keep it from growing very quickly. Yeah. And so that's I embraced it.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Yeah. You look great.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Oh, I look ridiculous. No, you know. People are very nice. You know what was really great, I gotta tell you, Mr. Our our boss. Um, he he was I was fussing with my thing because it was irritating

Embracing The Optune Device

SPEAKER_01 18:20

me. And he was like, Do you like wearing the cover? And I was like, No, but it's ugly and I'm trying, you know, and he's like, take it off. And he's kind of a gentle person in in things that are gross are not his favorite thing.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

And he was like, eh, take it off. It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

And that was again another way of just being right place, right time, right words to really be supportive.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

So I got a question. What are you learning about yourself right now?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Good, bad, full Monty. I have never appreciated what I've been given in this world as much as I should. I kind of had a rough time growing up, and I definitely didn't make great decisions starting out and learned that that's not the life I wanted. Had kids, definitely wanted them to have the best life, right? So I think I put so much stress and worry about being that that I don't know that I enjoyed it as much as I definitely should have. And I I'm kind of those weirdos. I love dandelions, I love messy things, I love chaos, I love energy and and young people and and their future that that is great importance to me. And boy, I've just been able to swim in that for all these years. And it's it's been given to me. So, so if I look at if this is it for me, what didn't I get? I got everything. I don't know that before this I appreciated that enough. Whether it's the amazing love of my husband and the gifts of my children and the community that I live in, and people that, hey, I got an idea. Okay, let's make it happen. I didn't do it. They did it. I get the credit, that's not fair. You know, there's there's been a lot of those kind of things that that I've discovered. I've definitely discovered I'm more vain. I didn't realize I'm a I'm a fat lady, I don't have teeth, you know. I've got like I I don't spend money on myself or that kind of thing. But appearing ill and appearing funny and not being able to feel attractive in those things. Wow, that shocked the holy crap out of me. And I'm weaker than I thought I could be.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah. Kind of makes you realize you have limits.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

In my life, it was not provided well. So if you needed something, you figured it out. I'm really good at figuring it out. I'm really good at making things happen that should happen. I'm not particularly

What This Season Is Teaching Her

SPEAKER_01 21:00

gifted at any accomplishment other than finding the right people to go do those things. But I'm in a position where I I can't. Yeah. And I don't. And you know, I I waddle when I walk. You know, I just the energy is gone and I am.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah. What do you think God has shown up for you in these in the season?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Every way. In every way. When when I think about my desire to support young people and youth and their development, God has always been a part of that. There there isn't a anybody that that doesn't know that that I want that for them too, right? And I I don't hide it and fire me, it's okay, you know, it doesn't matter. We we have those things that are that are drawn us to us kids, but through through that rally, you You guys had for my benefit, the the amount of kids that heard it, that responded through it, has been the greatest gift I've ever seen. For for God to show kindness and show oh I don't know, grace and all the failures and all the things that are wrong and all the mistakes I've made and all the everything that I've been wrong. So wrong.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

So what I'm hearing you say is God has definitely shown up through the people.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

In the quiet moments when nobody's around. It's just you and Troy. Yeah. What are the thoughts that you have about God or with God? What's if you would give us a glimpse into what those conversations might look like?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

We bounce from what are we going to do next? Let's get moving, let's not be stagnant, and and asking God for strength for that and and guidance of what we should put our time and energy into. The other part is we just got to the point where we were accepted we were going to be empty nesters. And we had just kind of thought we're going to have this time to rediscover each other in a new way. And and God, why that I of all mothers that accepted her children to leave, and it's not me,

Faith, Gratitude, And Letting Go

SPEAKER_01 23:20

right? I'm definitely not that, but I did. And then when this happened, it was like a little resentful in in moments of that's what I there were things I really wanted. But then I I really think in in those conversations with God, then is who said I was entitled to that?

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Who who said that I get that or or that I should? I definitely don't deserve it. You know what I mean? And didn't I get enough? So I really have to steal myself and tell myself, what do you know is truth? God doesn't give you cancer and he doesn't have to take it away. You know what I mean? He he doesn't punish or or praise based on whatever. He he says, I'm here.

unknown 24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

I've got you. You're not alone. Yeah. They're not alone. Right. Hey, Christy, I love them more than you do. Dang. My sister said that to me once, and I think I hung up on her. But I think it's very true.