Hello, and thanks for looking at Kay's page. She is a 54 year old, sweet southern lady who has struggled with several health problems over the past 12 years. In the past year, Kay noticed a sharp decline in the way she felt. She was suffering from some of the greatest pain she had experienced. She had fallen several times, which ultimately resulted in her needing to use a wheelchair and was beginning to notice that she had more and more problems breathing and swallowing. The breathing had landed her in the intensive care unit twice a year for the past few years, where she learned she had the dreaded condition of carbon dioxide retention. Along with this, swallowing and taking deap breaths became an issue. She finally sought more diverse treatment at Emory University Hospital, where she has been diagnosed with severe arthrits, neuropathy, COPD, fibromyalgia and found that her inability to walk was due to her spine being in a completely degenerative state. During an MRI of her degenerative disk disease, the test caught a 'glowing' lymph node on the left side of her thyroid that ended close to her carotid artery. She was already on her way home from her week long set of appointments at Emory, when she received a call from two of the doctors that had treated her, alarmed by the radiology report concerning the growth. After returning home, Kay's physician referred her to an endocrinologist who finally ran all the right tests, and those have culminated into a fast growing cancer on her thyroid and in her neck. She has been referred to a specialist in Augusta, Georgia, who deals with aggressive thyroid cancers and has accepted Kay as a 'work-in' surgical patient. The trip expenses, and out-of-pocket cost for her new insurance could not have come at a worse time. After the out-of-pocket expenses, Kay, and her husband have dealt with, including no insurance in previous years, we, her friends, are asking that you search your heart and help fund Kay's surgery expenses. She has devoted her life to helping raise money for children's medical expenses and several projects working for a non-profit organization. Kay says she is not done yet and is looking forward to being well again, as she had many projects planned when this hit.