Here is a quick encapsulation of the current situation (June 2024). Included below that, you’ll find a summary of the ongoing challenges that this page was established to address in 2021. At the end of May, after a series of escalating seizures and an extended hospital stay to get an MRI, we learned that Max has cancer in his brain. He is scheduled for surgery to remove the mass on June 18 at Dana-Farber in Boston. We anticipate a few days’ stay in the hospital, weeks of recovery, and then at least six months of Max being unable to drive. The cancer in Max’s brain is a different type of cancer than the one he was treated for in 2021. Fortunately, his doctors have determined that at the moment the cancer in his stomach for which he underwent surgery in 2021 is not returning or spreading. Additionally, the type of cancer in his brain, unlike the previous, can be fully removed with surgery and has a low rate of spread or recurrence. The procedure is a novel, single surgery instead of a biopsy first. The neurosurgeon seems confident in this plan and both Max and Hannah trust her. The hope is that Max will not have to undergo radiation and/or chemo, but we won’t know until after the surgery. In order to make this process slightly easier, we’re requesting assistance with dinner and occasional yardwork and other chores over the coming weeks. Please scroll down to the calendar below and sign up to bring or sponsor a meal — you don’t have to be local to help out! In the Special Notes section below you will find many ways you can send your support from afar. From 2021: As friends, colleagues, relatives, and community, we are all looking for ways to express our love and concern for Max, Hannah, Juni and Sina at a difficult and anxious moment. Please use this page rather than calling, emailing, or stopping by to check in on and show your support for our friends as they navigate the coming challenges. Below you will find a variety of specific ways you can sign up to be of service, from afar or in person, over the next few weeks and months. You are welcome to contact any of the three organizers listed above (Jess, Sarah, or Colleen) if you have questions or need any clarification. We invite you to find the best way to contribute your time or resources using the calendar below -- check the special notes section for helpful links and additional directions. All of what you do is greatly appreciated. How we got here ... In late February 2021, Max went to the ER with severe abdominal pain, and it was determined that he needed an emergency appendectomy. During that procedure the physician discovered and collected samples of unusual growths in Max's abdomen. Testing the tissue samples revealed the presence of cancer cells in and around his colon, for which he underwent an extensive and intense surgery in June. He has now begun a twelve-week course of chemotherapy, with three weeks' recovery time between each of the four infusions. Throughout this process, Max has been seeing an oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Center and a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Hannah and Max have confidence in both of them, and feel they are getting excellent care and advice. Their chemotherapy team here at Cooley Dickinson has likewise proved very thoughtful, communicative, compassionate and supportive as Max goes in for his treatments. Max and Hannah will need both our support and help and their own space to process and recover. This page was established as a way to channel all our affection, compassion, good wishes and nervous energy toward the kinds of support that will be most welcome and constructive.