Kelley's Krusaders

This page was created in honor of our dear friend, Kelley Kavanaugh, and her continuing FIGHT with cancer. I have included Kelley's own words below so you all can see her story from her point of view. What an amazing woman!! Once you read this story, please continue to read the rest of my request and exactly what we are hoping, asking and praying for........



"Diagnosed 2/17/12. Chemo, lymph node dissection in March 2012. Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, HER2 positive, stage IIIC. Pretty aggressive guy in there. Grew even through the chemo. Single mastectomy bumped up a month June 2012. Say hello to the uniboob!

Tumor was 10cm (size of a good sized lemon - and here I was... thinking I just had big boobs). New chemo regimen started June through October. 10 rounds total. Received CLEAN SCAN 8/24/2012. Hmmm.

6 weeks of daily radiation through November, last round was 12/7/12. DONE! Hair growing back (if not a little on the crazy curly side), feeling good. Another clean scan February 2013.

Time to put the boob back on - whew! I was tired of walking in circles due to the imbalance
Reconstruction scheduled for June 7th, 2013. Yes! And a tummy tuck as a bonus! Yes that's right, they were going to take the gut I've been working on for years and harvest for a new boob! How many women have prayed for that their entires lives?

One more scan 5/29/13, routine, no big deal. Well, I guess I wasn't meant to have a flat belly. Dang it. After another scan and biopsy, it's cancer. Pooh. Well, not pooh ... That other word for pooh. Poooooh!!

Okay, so I did it once, I can do it again.

Bad news just keeps coming. It's multiple lymph nodes which means surgery is out. If they can't get it all, don't even try. And if I have multiple nodes, it's probably in multiple places. Radiation is out because apparently you can't cook the area anymore. Chemo is out because ... Well, the 6 chemo drugs they tried didn't work, so why keep pumping in the toxic stuff.

So ........... Prognosis? Not good. Best case scenario? Not great. What to do?

Weep. Weep a lot. Weep with every single tear you have to weep. Wail. Sob. Fall to your knees and question your Lord and Savior.

Then you wipe the tears away and you thank God.

You thank God they found it. You thank God for putting things in place. You thank God for your precious family, for sweet friends, for treasured people that He put in your path. You read scripture. You listen to music that lifts your spirits up and helps you to continue to praise Him even in the storm. You be still, you listen.

I've never been "good" at praying. My prayers are conversations with God and Jesus as if they were friends in the room. He is my friend. And I am mad, sad, confused, doubtful and scared. That's okay.

He will never leave me. Welcome to my journey"

-Kelley


As you all can see, Kelley is a FIGHTER and has not given in to this. Even though it seems to be bad news, good news, bad news. She is not giving up and neither are we! When Chemo, radiation, and surgery are all out, what's next? NEW HOPE. That's what's next, a different type of hope. As most of you know, "new hope" is not cheap. This page has been created to help Kelley continue on with her new hope avenues and fight the BIG fight. Every little bit helps and will go a long way. Please help us help Kelley and her family. Kelley has twin 5 year old girls, a teenage step son and a husband that need her to continue this battle and overcome as well. This is not going to be an easy road, but with your support, we can help make it a little more manageable and give her that new hope she genuinely deserves. She is an Angel and if you have the pleasure of knowing her, you can relate when I say that she is someone that changes you forever and makes you a better person. Let's give her back some of that sunshine she spreads around. Time to gear up and round the troops!
"Kelley's Krusaders" are ready for battle!