Krocks In The Kitchen

[Turaj]

Huge risk agreed. It’s very early days when you are on regular scanning every 4 months. Even the ‘inflammation’ in Brian’s small intestine is a worry given his history of cancer.
It would be beneficial to know if either of their cancers, or even both perhaps contained the mutation to be passed on to offspring. I know this can be looked into so children of parents who died or had cancer can be identified as at risk and monitored during their lifetime.
If Brian is going to be the stay at home dad for all their kids … good luck to that! He will need some additional willpower for a complete makeover given they even harp on about needing naps after just some travel and appointments!

I think it is clear he will be the stay at home mom for the children..I think Jessica makes decent money and has a very stable job. A couple of comments from someone who goes to Mayo pretty often. You rarely see Children running around like Elsie. Obviously germs are everywhere and the kids that you do see are usually the patients. They often in the appointment info as you not to bring family members to these type of waiting areas. I did not understand why when they each went for their scans they could not go alone and the other parent stay with Elsie at the apartment? Consults..okay get why both are there but these are routine time consuming scans and there is nothing for a child to do at Mayo. I thought to myself what are they going to do with 2 children? These scans will be for life...hopefully down to one a year but still both of their cancers have high recurrence rates. I know Brian reads here and sorry but watching him waddle into the treatment area was painful.....the stakes for his success in weight loss could not be higher for himself and his family. He should be consulting an expert at Mayo to get him on a program that gives him a chance. You can sometimes forget just how large he is as most videos are waist up..seated .

 

[LeonorG]

Yes agree. I remember things being very dire pre and post second surgery and the projected prognosis appeared grim. Then results were released and they were fantastic (which was indeed fantastic for Jessica) but very puzzling given the prelude. Since then it’s been quiet on their front but seemingly Jessica is still in a good place cancer wise.
I would have many questions if I was her and wonder if they did in fact have lots of questions for her surgeons?

I wish they did a q&a or a live on that instead of on baby making.

 

[Daisychain4]

Definitely no moral compass between them.
You would think they would be over the moon with what they have in life which is their health (at this time) and their daughter.
They have not made any attempt to improve their health status post both receiving potentially fatal diagnoses, yet they scheme for a way to bring another life into this world. Absolutely selfish thinking and it says heaps about how they feel about their daughter!

 

[suzeq]

A sensation many RCC patients experience is feeling a shaky movement internally. It is actually the bowel having more room to move! It can occupy the space where the kidney used to be.

Wow, if that happens just from the extra space from missing a kidney, I wonder what kind of shaky movement one must feel after a PE surgery and all that extra space then! I wonder if something similar happens after a hysterectomy? Fascinating tidbit!

All I recall from my uni days is that the adrenal glands are involved in the regulation of the three "S's": salt, sex, and I forget the 3rd one. Will have to look it up again now (just looked it up: sugar).

Brian seemed very matter of fact and not displaying any emotions. I suspect he's putting on a brave face, I sense he's very frightened. For both of them to be in the other's shoes must feel very surreal; they know intimately what the other was feeling. With a brand new child, their fear must be palpable. I could see it in Jessica's demeanour and in her voice and facial expressions. They probably have a brand new mortgage too.

I agree, even waiting a whole year between scans would be very hard. Given its stealth behaviour, it doesn't sound like past results are any predictor of future status at all.

I am so glad you are sharing your knowledge with others in some way. I am certain you are helping others navigate this difficult path in their life.

 

[Turaj]

I don’t think we have ever seen any update to say otherwise so I guess he continues as the stay at home parent… stay at home and eat eat eat!

It’s quite obvious his pledge to get himself healthier which was early into his cancer diagnosis was just talk and he has little willpower to oblige.
Yet another family where the smell of money overshadows a good healthy lifestyle. Pity the kid is going to be in the middle of their unhealthy affairs ….

8 months ago Brian made a promise to his surgeon and to himself when deciding whether to do partial kidney removal or the whole thing that he would lose weight and "get healthy" as the weight is really a burden to that remaining kidney. It appears to me that even that did not register with him. Jessie is making him look like an idiot sitting there and talking about what he eats. This guy is not just overweight he was over 500 lbs and I bet is still about 400 lbs. He is in for some real health issues beyond cancer. I thought after this long absence that when he came back on YT he would have a significant amount of weight. Not happening. If they read here sorry but this is really life and death and hard to watch.

 

[Saydee]

At least they won’t need to buy teddies for the baby. Jessica will hopefully share her teddies.

 

[AlwaysScience]

The strongest scientifically supportable relationships between “food” and cancer are for processed meats and alcohol. The sugar thing is a common myth that arose out of the fact that faster growing cells, including cancer cells, absorb glucose faster. Do an internet search for “sugar cancer myth.”

My brother is on one of the GLP1 receptor agonists and has lost a lot of weight. I think he uses Ozempic. There are several of them now that have US FDA approval and I think one is available in pill form now (originally they all had to be injected.)

These meds work great but the process of your body adjusting to them is ROUGH. Brother had a bunch of bouts of violent vomiting at first. One of these drugs has recently been found to reduce sleep apnea. With the proven weight loss, improvement in Type 2 diabetes and the fact that they reduce risk of heart attacks, US medical insurance companies cannot get away with refusing to cover these new drugs.

My guess is that Brian Krock will either go on one of the GLP1 agonists or will get one of the surgeries like gastric sleeve. Even with the unpleasant side effects as the body gets used to them, I think the GLP1 agonists are probably less stressful for the body than the various gastric surgeries.

 

[LeonorG]

No doc here but lots of experience getting results from Mayo. Now the biopsy might take a few days for final but those PET and CT scans are usually same day. Jessica always has a consult shortly after. They tend to be Sunday evening vloggers so I expect something coming later today.

A new video by the Krocks. It's cancer. I started watching it now. These two have been through so much crap.

Jessica and Brian are very good at explaining things. So different from how the rodent and her blue balls handle things in vlogs. They literally can't put a coherent sentence together when talking about results.

 

[Turaj]

Yes the cousin seems like a sweetheart.

She is incredible and few would have any relative willing to do this...at least in the familes that I know well. What really amazes me is that she would be willing to do this again and I think that was the plan until she almost died. I think trying to move outside your family for surrogate is very risky business but I know very little about how this all works and believe it is very expensive.

 

[LeonorG]

I agree. I am a loyal follower of the Krocks. I believe they are very genuine. Their content is comprehensive and informative. I like them personally too. I like them so much that I did not want them to have TL thread. I don’t want them to be exposed to gossip. I really don’t. Ugh

I felt that way about Jenny. I did not want her to be exposed to gossip not only because I find her genuine and not deserving of a lot of the critique but also because her health has been dire. I knew some people will be critical of her just because they don't like her. But then it's Tattle. People want to discuss and everyone can share their opinion. I also like the Krocks and I hope people won't be too harsh. If some comments bother you, you can always mute those few who tend to be more toxic for no reason.

 

[Daisychain4]

New video from Krocks today 8/24. Really sad to see these two complaining about depression....Jessica crying and Brian bobbing his head in agreement with everything she says. The noteworthy comment that I still can't believe is that they are living in this new house without a toilet! I don't think it was a joke. How do you do that?

How can that be anywhere close to normal? No toilet indeed! What a messy unfortunate couple these two have progressed to. It appears their depression has led to nervous eating with both of them especially Jessica looking significantly more obese. How any of their woes equates to being supportive parents of a two year old is deeply concerning.
Why are they vlogging their unhealthy disposition. Why not seek appropriate mental health help and care and move on with life. These embarrassing videos are just adding further insult to what seems like scraping the bottom of the barrel. How embarrassing that her workplace gets to see this!
Whatever income they are getting from social media is being eaten away on some unhealthy plant based foods ~ just look at them. Disgusting

 

[LeonorG]

To their credit, they've both made videos in the past when they've started gaining weight explaining why it was happening and what their bad habits were. Jessica made one video when she had a binge eating episode while Brian was at church, and Brian's also had periods of not staying on track.

A lot of vegan foods can be fattening (like fries and sweets) so following a plant-based diet won't always keep you slim if you keep reaching for junk food.

Also, good on them for becoming more healthy and changing their lifestyle. And for trying to stay on track.

 

[mayday mayday]

Wow! You guys are way more familiar with them. Youtube only recommended me their video about the suspected cancer. I hope some others who were invested in Jessica's cancer journey will join this thread. I think it was @Turaj, @mayday mayday, @AlwaysScience. We really should have opened a thread on them when the cancer was still present and we had many questions and doubts. We had great medical discussions back then. And we weren't shady or making up gossip or drama. So many great Krocks discussions are scattered all over Tiffany's threads

Hi all I didnt watch many of the K videos but I was really impressed with how Brian explained what was happening, he read aloud the actual path reports (which can be kinda daunting to folks not familiar with medical terminology) and at least once showed the actual radiology images. While I understand why they went for a second opinion at Mayo, what I don't understand is why they chose to receive the chemo there. I thought at first that Mayo had offered them a novel treatment (maybe some new drug that had recently been approved by the FDA) or heck ... had a clinical trial that Jessica was eligible to enroll in. But no, she received carbo/taxol which is the garden variety standard of care. Any medical oncologist in the St Louis area could have treated her with carbo/taxol, with the gyne onc at Mayo kept informed of her progress towards the planned surgery at Mayo. Why make those long drives to Mayo while accruing all of the extra expenses? At the time I didn't know that Brian had lost his job ... which makes any extra spending more questionable. [At work we recently had a 30- something patient dx with a widespread Stage 4 colon cancer. The patient received chemo with us then had surgery and HIPEC at a hospital on the other side of the country). So it can be done. Maybe I should see if this person has a YT channel, I'm only half joking . Jeez at some point this could happen...I'll see one of our actual patients on the YT.

 

[Saydee]

@AlwaysScience I was recently reading medical papers about a study that's been done in China. The study is specific to RCC and Kidney cancer. Kidney cancer used to be considered an old mans disease because it was elderly males being diagnosed. However, they are now seeing a massive increase in younger patients being diagnosed.
I have an interest because obviously I lost my husband to RCC at a relatively young age, and his oncologists believe he probably had cancer for at least 10 years prior to being diagnosed. That being based on the growth rate of his tumours.
The study was very interesting, it looked at weight, tobacco & alcohol consumption, processed foods, dairy products and chemicals.
I believe that my husband developed cancer at a young age due to being exposed to occupational chemicals.

 

[Make sense of it!]

He makes up vegan recipes for the channel. I haven't tried any of them because most look pretty unappetizing to me.

I really enjoy their recipes as a pescaterian not vegan l love me a good plant based meal.
---

This may sound like a dumb question but from an insurance point of view..is any of this covered by the surrogate's insurance or by the Krocks' insurance? And now 2 months in an air bnb in Columbus? I thought they might discuss the GoFundMe excess last night but I assume it is being used for the baby now. I must say Jessie has put an extraordinary amount of additional stress on herself for the scans in two weeks. You could see her voice change when talking about this reality. There was a comment about Brian's reply to Jessica's mother when she said that her grandbaby will not be brought up as a barbarian or some such nonsense that Brian was talking about. I think he might be a MIL's challenge. He mentioned something about the child being ready to fight people etc. It was odd. I vote Brian's behavior more concerning than Kyle or Matt. He responded to the comment with something about this baby being a Krock and the tone I too thought was rude as did the poster. I am also left wondering about their longterm ability to hawk vegan plant based lifestyle considering being overweight (Brian) and Jessica's cancer. It does not make me want to look at their choices for myself. I don't like posting negative thoughts on them but I realized last night they sort of invite this with the things they do and say on social media. Love it when Brian said going to be the best traveled baby ever...and they plan to do lots of travel...and the money keeps rolling in?
---
And now YTubers want to have an online shower for them and also gifts for Tess the surrogate. They are now figuring out how front and center this baby will be in their YT videos after birth.

And this is when l check out, when food content channel becomes child exploitation!! Family vloggers suck.
---

One more thing that bothers me as I realize the timeline here...implantation took place back in Feb. about 1.5 months post surgery when Jessica was is very bad shape physically and mentally...first scans not until I think May which are always an important process to evaluate things. It is clear and was repeated yesterday that this baby is for Brian to have someone in the event Jessica's cancer returns . Some might find that a great motivation...I don't. October is not that far off !!!

Implantation took place 1st February 2023 two weeks and two days post surgery.

 

[girlwhowrites]

I am also left wondering about their longterm ability to hawk vegan plant based lifestyle considering being overweight (Brian) and Jessica's cancer. It does not make me want to look at their choices for myself.

To their credit, they've both made videos in the past when they've started gaining weight explaining why it was happening and what their bad habits were. Jessica made one video when she had a binge eating episode while Brian was at church, and Brian's also had periods of not staying on track.

A lot of vegan foods can be fattening (like fries and sweets) so following a plant-based diet won't always keep you slim if you keep reaching for junk food.

 

[Turaj]

It was a good update but such an odd case in that Mayo Clinic seems still very unsure what happened to the cancer and they have a bunch of very small spots they are watching. Super-stresser every 3 months for the foreseeable future. Brian looks good with his haircut...it was pretty unkempt.

 

[girlwhowrites]

I see what you mean. There is an "old" quality about them. Like they would fit better in a different century. I think they would fit "old-fashioned" clothes and activities. They give me amish vibes.

It's weird, because they do come off as older in some ways, but in other ways they come across as kids. Like Jessica with her toys and Brian with his video games. Moving in with Brian's parents because they didn't want to pay rent for an apartment anymore. I'm pretty sure Brian is in his early 40s. Yet for some reason, they do still give off an "old couple" vibe.

 

[AngryBird]

It's very odd and really reckless. I think they had a lot of Go Fund Me money but they must've blown through that by now. The video with Tess was very childish. The woman nearly died! The other woman has a serious situation with a rare cancer! The Dad as well! It's quite frankly nuts to have one baby given the timing of when they went ahead and to have a second is ludicrous. I suppose Tess would take in the child/children if they die? It's very selfish behaviour.

 

[Turaj]

New video out that confirms that Tess will be their surrogate again. They are answering many of the questions/comments and will be posting more videos about the whole process this time.

Today confirms that they will move ahead with Tess and hope to use this story to increase views and get the YT money train back on track. There simply can be no other reason to spend over 40 minutes reading comments and defending their actions. Even going to get Tess and husband involved in future videos. Sorry but I don't see Tess and her husband as heros . Both Brian and Jessica. have scans coming up in March...they are watching some lymph nodes for Jessica and Brian has not only to watch for cancer but now potentially has Crohn's. I assume they need YT money coming in big time as they must be paying for all these tests and speciality doctors. No insurance would cover all of this. I can understand going thru this once to have your own child but now I think they are asking for trouble.