911 for Cindy Helkenn
Donation protected
This is Sammie, Ted and Cindy's 4 year old daughter. She loves to help with chores! When I play with Sammie, it always involves one of her animals being sick, going to the doctor and resting a lot.
URGENT http://www.theworldofcin.com/
Life is filled with blessings! We are blessed with family love, good friends and community. We believe hard work and perseverance will always provide a way.
Cindy Helkenn is married to my brother Ted.
On March 12, 2017, she was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the small bowel. The cancer had mestastasized to her ovaries and lymph nodes. The prognosis was 6-9 months and a 5% chance of living another 3 years. During the last 17 months, Cindy has undergone chemotherapy every 2 weeks. She had 4 surgeries and 2 hospitalizations during this time.
The surgeries and hospitalizations interfered with Cindy’s chemotherapy treatments. The cancer developed into an additional diagnosis – peritoneal carcinomatosis: a metastic tumor in her abdomen.
A scan last week showed that the tumor had doubled in size. Next week she will begin 5 days of chemotherapy and radiation for the next 8 weeks. Her life expectancy is less than 3 months without this treatment. If this extreme treatment shrinks the tumor to a manageable size for surgery, they will more than likely need to travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
Cindy and Ted live in Sundance, WY and will need to travel to Rapid City, SD, the closest place for her treatment. They will need to travel 186 miles, 5 days a week for the next 8 weeks. Ted is employed at Regional Hospital in Spearfish, SD as a sonographer. He works full time night shifts Monday through Friday so he can take care of their 4-year-old daughter, Sammie and take Cindy to her medical appointments. They do all of this with one running vehicle in their family. They have 4 adult children, only 1 living close to them. Ted has had Type 1 Diabetes since the age of 10. The medical information and resources available during that time were minimal. Ted’s health is not well either.
Life is beautiful and filled with challenges. We get through them with the grace of God, family and community. I just don’t know how much more this family can endure. Thinking of what they are going through and how much four-year-old Sammie could lose is heartbreaking. It is hard to imagine.
On behalf of my brother, his wife Cindy and their family, I am asking for help to reduce stress during this critical time in their lives. I pray for peace while they continue this battle and love and happiness to see them through.
Attached is a list of expenses they are facing. They have exhausted all of their resources (everything they have) in the last 17 months on Cindy’s treatment and there just isn’t anything left for what is now the only thing left that will allow her to live more than a few more weeks.
It is so hard for us to imagine.
God Bless,
Carmen and the Helkenn family
URGENT http://www.theworldofcin.com/ Life is filled with blessings! We are blessed with family love, good friends and community. We believe hard work and perseverance will always provide a way.
Cindy Helkenn is married to my brother Ted.
On March 12, 2017, she was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the small bowel. The cancer had mestastasized to her ovaries and lymph nodes. The prognosis was 6-9 months and a 5% chance of living another 3 years. During the last 17 months, Cindy has undergone chemotherapy every 2 weeks. She had 4 surgeries and 2 hospitalizations during this time.
The surgeries and hospitalizations interfered with Cindy’s chemotherapy treatments. The cancer developed into an additional diagnosis – peritoneal carcinomatosis: a metastic tumor in her abdomen.
A scan last week showed that the tumor had doubled in size. Next week she will begin 5 days of chemotherapy and radiation for the next 8 weeks. Her life expectancy is less than 3 months without this treatment. If this extreme treatment shrinks the tumor to a manageable size for surgery, they will more than likely need to travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
Cindy and Ted live in Sundance, WY and will need to travel to Rapid City, SD, the closest place for her treatment. They will need to travel 186 miles, 5 days a week for the next 8 weeks. Ted is employed at Regional Hospital in Spearfish, SD as a sonographer. He works full time night shifts Monday through Friday so he can take care of their 4-year-old daughter, Sammie and take Cindy to her medical appointments. They do all of this with one running vehicle in their family. They have 4 adult children, only 1 living close to them. Ted has had Type 1 Diabetes since the age of 10. The medical information and resources available during that time were minimal. Ted’s health is not well either.
Life is beautiful and filled with challenges. We get through them with the grace of God, family and community. I just don’t know how much more this family can endure. Thinking of what they are going through and how much four-year-old Sammie could lose is heartbreaking. It is hard to imagine.
On behalf of my brother, his wife Cindy and their family, I am asking for help to reduce stress during this critical time in their lives. I pray for peace while they continue this battle and love and happiness to see them through.
Attached is a list of expenses they are facing. They have exhausted all of their resources (everything they have) in the last 17 months on Cindy’s treatment and there just isn’t anything left for what is now the only thing left that will allow her to live more than a few more weeks.
It is so hard for us to imagine.
God Bless,
Carmen and the Helkenn family
Organizer
Carmen Kirkpatrick
Organizer
Denver, CO
