Denise Lipkins's Medical Expenses

January 9, 2015 my mother went to the doctor for a simple cough.  She was feeling short of breath and coughing a lot, so she figured, it was time to get some medicine.  After a quick MRI/Catscan, the doctor told her she would need to be admitted that day.  Without a clear or definitive explanation, she trusted the doctors orders and promptly sent me a text message saying "call me when you get off work."  Rarely sensing the urgency in my mother's texts, I waited like she suggested and called after work.  She explained to me what the doctorexplained to her.  The doctor said that he had seen several "spots" on her lungs, but hopefully suggested that they could be attributed to one of three things: blood clots, infection, or cancer.  Her admittance was considered "strictly precautionary" and honestly no one considered the latter of the options.  Sensing the worry in my moms voice, I thought I'd better go check on her spirits.  I flew into Shreveport, LA on January 10, 2015.  (She'd recently been hired as an administrator in Shreveport, at an alternative school).  I was followed in arrival by my aunt, Diana, and my stepfather, John.  I slept on a cot next to her hospital bed while her husband braved the chair.  For the next two weeks doctors ran a series of tests.  They quickly ruled out infection and blood clots, which left us in a total state of confusion.  However, they couldn't seem to definitively state that it was cancer.  I left, my aunt came back, my step dad left, and we did a game of shuffling until my mom was released.  Still breathing terribly but convinced that cancer would be ruled out in due time.  

January 22, 2015 I was walking to pick my students up from the cafeteria after lunch.  It was strangely timed, because we'd just got off the phone because she said the doctor was calling.  At 12:13 pm, I received a text message from my mom.  Results were in, she had cancer, call asap.  My heart sank, my world turned upside down, and I can only imagine how she felt.  If it weren't for my co-workers, my students would've been stranded in the cafeteria that day.  I hadn't a clue where to begin, or how to begin.  Thank God for timing, because my aunt Diana was there to help her in receiving the news.  Stage 4 metastative leiomysarcoma, for all who are blessed enough to not have to understand cancer, it simply means the cancer is in her soft tissue, it has spread to her lungs, and she is considered to be in the last stage of growth,

Anyone who knows my mom, knows her spirit.  She's strong and charismatic.  I don't think my mom has ever met an enemy.  She's loving and caring, sometimes goofy and highly intelligent.  You know sometimes people talk about others with high regard and in such reverance because it's the "right thing to say," but my mom truly embodies all things great.  Ask anyone who knows her, they can attest.  I don't know why bad things happen to good people, and frankly, an answer to that question wouldn't soothe me or make it any easier to cope.  I just want my mom to get better and live a normal life again.