Mom’s Arm Tingling Dismissed as Anxiety Turns Out to Be Brain Cancer
Kelsey Stokstad, 32, from Madison, Wisconsin, was initially told that the numbness and tingling in her left arm and hand were due to anxiety. Doctors prescribed beta blockers, but her symptoms persisted.
Four months later, Stokstad suffered a grand mal seizure—losing consciousness with violent muscle contractions. A CT scan revealed a 4cm mass on her brain. She underwent a craniotomy to remove 98% of the tumor, which was later diagnosed as a grade 3 astrocytoma with an IDH1 mutation—a slower-growing, cancerous brain tumor.
“I was in shock,” Stokstad recalled. “I thought of my three-year-old daughter, Raya, and how I didn’t want her to grow up without a mom.” Initially, doctors gave her a prognosis of three to five years, but the IDH1 mutation extended her expected survival to 12–15 years.
Stokstad underwent 33 rounds of radiotherapy and 12 rounds of chemotherapy, completing treatment in January 2025. She now has MRI scans every four months to monitor the tumor’s status.
Despite the diagnosis, she remains hopeful about the future. Stokstad and her husband, Sean, are planning IVF to expand their family next year, pending stable MRI results.
“This is still really hard, but I’m grateful to be here,” Stokstad said. “If my scans remain stable, we’ll be able to start growing our family early next year, and we can’t wait.”
