My name is Cindy Medlen and this is my story.

On December 7th, 1980, my first child was born. A baby girl, 5lbs 5 oz.

On December 18th, 1986, my little girl was diagnosed with Cancer.

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, to be exact. We were told our daughter would be gone in 2 weeks time, and there was no time to blink.

Our world changed in an instance.

Through all the beginning chaos, I found a moment, and went down to the Chapel that was in the hospital.

I got down on my knees by the altar, and I prayed...prayed HARD.

Then I stood up and screamed...SCREAMED to God..."please don't take my baby girl!! PLEASE!!"

2 YRS 2 MOS 2 DAYS of chemo and my daughter was in remission!

After 5 years she was considered cured. But my mama heart worried for atleast 20 yrs after considered cured. It was always at the back of my mind.

Fast forward to May 18th 2018.

I had been suffering for several years with random issues with my body. Big welts would form on my face and stomach, swelling with my lips, eyes, my throat...

I have had my throat start to close on me 13 different times now, and I carried epipens with me everywhere.

No Dr. Could figure out what my symptoms meant...rash everywhere, anxiety, depression, sadness, over heated constantly.

My husband of 20 years had left me for someone else and had been gone for awhile.

This left me hopeless, and everything got worse with my health. I became disabled, couldn't work, couldn't support myself.

I was staying on people's couches after I lost my house.

And on May 18th, 2018

I got 3 important phone calls that would change my life again.

I got the first call... that I was approved to move-in to a low income apartment and it was ready that day.

I didn't have much to move, so the move was easy.

A few hours later, the phone rang again and it was the specialist I saw in Seattle, and he felt he had answers to my health issues and asked if I could be there the following week for some more testing.

I was overwhelmed.

Both physically and mentally exhausted!

Then, my phone rang again.

It was a Dr from Seattle, asking me if I knew where to get ahold of my daughter. They needed to talk to her immediately.

I messaged my daughter and gave her the message and my stomach was in knots. I know what it means when your Dr. is looking for you and needs to speak with you immediately.

20 minutes later, my daughter called me and told me they think she has cancer.

My stomach and heart dropped, to that familiar place, of pain...knowing I have no control over what was about to go down.

I flew immediately to be by my daughters side.

And on May 18th, we were told she has Acute Myloid Leukemia...

I crumbled.

And my specialist called to tell me I had a rare disease. Called Mastocytosis...

a mast cell activation disease or mcad.

With my daughters cancer diagnosis and the plan of her needing a bone marrow transplant, that would require a 24 hour caregiver for atleast 1 year, my doc put me on a monthly dose of steroids to help calm my symptoms, so I could take care of her during this time.

I gained 60 lbs.

Fast Forward to June 20th, 2019

After 1 yr and 1 month of a battle from hell, my daughter, my beautiful precious daughter, Jessica Lane, lost the battle.

I held her hand, kissed it everywhere I could, her beautiful fingers and hands.... I cried as her soul left her body...and her eyes looked up, as she went to be with Jesus.

Part of my heart went with her. I wanted to take my last breath NOW...so I could go with her. But that wasn't God's plan. My heart was shattered and still is.

Fast forward June 15th 2022.

The loneliness and the pain of losing her was still so strong and I felt so alone.

I made a whim of a decision to move to Arizona, to be near my son and my 4 yr old grandson.

Since I have lived here, in Arizona, which is 4 yrs today, I have had a heart attack, triple bypass open heart surgery, eye surgery, cancer, 5 hospital stays with reoccurring pericarditis, my dog and I got hit by a crazy driver when we were walking I had my first ever accident here

and my Mastocytosis is out of control especially with this heat.

With my disease, tolerating heat is out of the picture and Arizona has the heat!

I miss Washington, I miss my daughter, I miss rain and snow, I miss all the friends and relatives, the bonus daughters and kids, the daily walks with my dog, Boo Boo...

So I decided that before anything drastic happens with my health, I want to move back home. If I get sick again, I want to be home. and home is Washington...

I want to be near all the places my daughter was apart of. and all the people that loved her almost as much as me. I want to hear her name spoken by friends. it warms my heart.

Her Urn, still sits on her sister's mantle.

I want to have her near me.

But to get home I am going to need lots of help.

Financially and emotionally.

I do not have the means to get there with out help.

My birthday is in a few days and I will be 68.

I don't want to die here in Arizona. I want to be where Jessie was.

I applied for a low income apartment in Spokane, about 4 months ago and I was contacted a few days ago letting me know I had come to the top of the list and am approved for move in date of middle of July!

I definitely wasn't expecting it to happen this quickly!

My dilemmas are many...

1. My car is broken down .. .again.

It's a 2001 volvo sedan and I can no way, drive it 1500 miles, by myself and my dog, and feel safe. And I cannot buy a different car.

So I need to fix this one.

2. I have a balance of almost $600 on my electric bill here, that needs to be paid before I can move.

3. I have to rent some kind of a uhaul, to transport what things I have, to washington.

4. I need to hire a couple of guys to do the moving, because there's no way I can do this in 112° weather.

5. I need to hire a driver, to drive the uhaul

6. I need gas money for both the uhaul and my car, as well as for food and hotels.

With my health issues I can only drive a maximum of 5 hrs a day, or my legs go numb so I will need to make 3 stops to spend the night somewhere.

6.The deposit for my new apartment is going to be almost half my check...which I do not have.

7. I need to pay first month's rent.

8. Groceries when I move in

I probably didn't need to make this such a long story, but I want people to know our journey, and how it got to this point. Definitely by the Grace of GOD.

If you can help me in any way it would be greatly appreciated!

I just want to go home.

#FCANCER

#Fmastocytosis

Glendale, AZ